Information Commissioner Sushma Singh to take over as CIC

NEW DELHI: Sushma Singh, the seniormost Information Commissioner, will be the next Chief Information Commissioner of India and will succeed Deepak Sandhu, who completes her term.

The decision on appointing Singh, a former IAS officer, as the next CIC was taken unanimously by a panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Law Minister Kapil Sibal.

Singh will the second woman to become CIC after Sandhu, whose term comes to an end later this month.

Being the seniormost Information Commissioner, Singh was the unanimous choice for the post of CIC, sources said. Her tenure will end in May next year.

Sushma Singh became Information Commissioner on September 23, 2009 in the Central Information Commission. She had retired from IAS on May 31, 2009.

She is a former Secretary to the Government of India and belongs to the Jharkhand cadre. She had joined IAS in 1972. Singh has served as Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

She has also served in the capacity of Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and also in the Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER).