Former justice secretary Raj Kumar Goyal was sworn in as the chief information commissioner on Monday, and eight other information commissioners were also appointed, bringing the RTI adjudication panel to full capacity after nine years.

The previous CIC, Heeralal Samariya, retired in September. There are 10 posts of information commissioners.

In response to petitions, the Centre had told the Supreme Court on December 1 that the high-powered selection panel, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would meet on December 10 to choose a CIC. The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had submitted a dissent note at the meeting, which was also attended by home minister Amit Shah.

The eight new information commissioners are journalists Ashutosh Chaturvedi and P.R. Ramesh, former central secretariat service officer Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, former head of Tripura’s forest department Khushwant Singh Sethi, former IAS officer Surendra Singh Meena, who served as Droupadi Murmu’s principal secretary when she was Jharkhand governor, former IPS officer Swagat Das who served in senior posts at the Intelligence Bureau, former legal service officer Sudha Rani Relangi, and former railway board chairperson and CEO Jaya Varma Sinha. They were sworn in by President Murmu on Monday.

Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri — two of the three petitioners in the case — said in a statement: “Since December 2018, the Supreme Court, in multiple orders, has directed the filling of all vacancies in the CIC given the large backlog of appeals/ complaints in the commission.

“This was also the 7th time that the post of the chief CIC fell vacant in the last 11 years. The last chief Shri Heeralal Samariya, retired on 13.9.2025 upon attaining the age of 65. In fact, in each of the 7 times that the post of the chief CIC fell vacant, it was on account of routine retirements — either attaining the age of 65 or upon completion of stipulated tenure, and despite that, the government failed to make appointments in a timely manner. The failure to fill vacancies has led to increasing backlog in the CIC. Currently, the backlog stands at more than 31,000 and it takes more than 1 year for a matter to be heard by the commission,” the statement added.

The petitioners said that the last two times appointments were made to the CIC, there were serious concerns regarding the appointment process. “In November 2020, a candidate who had not applied in response to the advertisement was short-listed and appointed in a completely arbitrary manner. The then leader of the single largest group in Opposition, who was a member of the selection committee, gave a detailed dissent note highlighting the arbitrary manner of shortlisting and selection that was followed. In November 2023, when the chief and two ICs were appointed, the selections were made only by the PM and a Union cabinet minister, without the leader of Opposition, in flagrant violation of the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005,” the statement said.