India’s first Dalit Chief Information Commissioner is Heeralal Samariya of Rajasthan. President Draupadi Murmu swore in Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya as the new head of the Central Information Commission (CIC) on Monday.
Samariya was sworn in by President Murmu during a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, according to officials. Eight Information Commissioner positions are open following Samariya’s nomination as Chief Information Commissioner. The Commission currently has two Information Commissioners.
The Supreme Court ordered the central and state governments to take action to fill the positions on October 30, and that action led to the appointment. A bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra took serious notice of the openings in CICs and State Information Commissions (SICs) and requested that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) gather data from every state.
On September 14, 1960, Heeralal Samariya was born in a small Rajasthan hill hamlet close to Bharatpur. Heeralal Samariya has held positions as Director (Personnel) in Singareni Collieries, Kothagudam, Telangana; Joint Secretary in the Municipal Administration Secretariat, Hyderabad; Secretary in the Irrigation Department; Chairman and Managing Director in the Central Electricity Distribution Company, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; Project Director in the Rural Poverty Alleviation Society; and Collector and DM in Guntur.