Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha has been appointed as the chief information commissioner (CIC) in the Central Information Commission on Saturday.
President, Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office to Sinha at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, a statement released by the Bhavan said.
The 62-year-old former diplomat was appointed as the information commissioner on January 1, 2019.
He has served as India’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.
A CIC and information commissioner are appointed for a tenure of five years or till they attain the age of 65 years.
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and home minister Amit Shah are members of the panel that selected the CIC and information commissioners.
The panel has also selected journalist Uday Mahurkar, former labour secretary, Heera Lal Samariya and former deputy comptroller and auditor general, Saroj Punhani as the information commissioners.
Sinha will administer the oath of office to Mahurka, Samariya and Punhani later during the day.
Currently, there are four information commissioners in the Central Information Commission against the sanctioned strength of 10. They are Vanaja N Sarna, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Suresh Chandra and Amita Pandove. With the appointment of these three information commissioners, the total strength now is seven.