Panel member who brought parties under RTI resigns for CIC

Information Commissioner M L Sharma has resigned from the Central Information Commission after a nearly five-year-long stint. Sharma was part of several landmark decisions including the bringing of political parties under the RTI Act.

"Yes I have resigned. I have sent my resignation to the President about 10 days back," Sharma said. His tenure was coming to an end on September 8 this year.

He said he had given "personal reasons" for the resignation but would remain in office till September 4 which is the last day for Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra in office.

However, sources in the Commission said that Sharma did not want to work under a Chief Information Commissioner who would be junior to him.

After the retirement of Mishra, Information Commissioner Deepak Sandhu and Sushma Singh are most likely to become the chief and both are junior to Sharma.

The Department of Personnel and Training has started process of selection of Information Commissioners. According to the RTI Act, the Commission can have a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners.

At present, CIC has only six Information Commissioners in addition to the Chief Information Commissioner. After Mishra and Sharma demit office in September, only five members would be left in the Commission.

Sharma was one of the members of the full bench which declared political parties to be public authorities under the RTI Act.