Who Is Raj Kumar Goyal? Former IAS Officer Set to Take Oath as India’s New Chief Information Commissioner on Dec 15

New Delhi: Senior bureaucrat Raj Kumar Goyal, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is scheduled to take oath as India’s next Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on December 15, according to official sources. The oath of office will be administered by President Droupadi Murmu.

Raj Kumar Goyal belongs to the 1990 batch of the IAS and is from the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories). Over the course of more than three decades in public service, he has held several key positions in the Union government, gaining wide experience in legal, administrative, and internal security matters.

Before superannuation, Goyal served as Secretary in the Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice, a role in which he was responsible for overseeing judicial administration and policy-related work. Earlier, he had also held the post of Secretary (Border Management) in the Ministry of Home Affairs, where he dealt with issues related to border infrastructure and internal security coordination.

His appointment as Chief Information Commissioner was cleared by a high-level selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi as members. Alongside Goyal, the panel also approved the appointment of several new Information Commissioners to address vacancies in the Central Information Commission.

The post of CIC had remained vacant since the retirement of Former CIC Heeralal Samariya in September this year. With Goyal’s induction, the Central Information Commission is expected to regain full operational strength after a prolonged gap.

The Central Information Commission is the apex body responsible for hearing appeals and complaints filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, playing a crucial role in promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. As its head, Goyal will be tasked with steering the institution at a time when the effective implementation of the RTI law remains a subject of public focus.

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