New Delhi, Nov 6 : Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya was on Monday sworn in as the chief of Central Information Commission (CIC) by President Droupadi Murmu here at a ceremony. The President administered the oath of office to Samariya as CIC at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.The ceremony was also attended by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh among other senior dignitaries. Samariya took over the post after the retirement of former CIC, Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha on October 3. Samariya, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was sworn-in as the Information Commissioner in the CIC on November 7, 2020. A 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Telangana cadre, Samariya retired as the Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. He had also served as the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment; as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers; Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Telangana; Chairman and MD, Transmission Corporation of A.P.(TransCo) among others. After Samariya's appointment as the Chief Information Commissioner, there exists a vacancy of eight Information Commissioners. At present, there are two Information Commissioners in the Commission. The Commission is headed by the Chief Information Commissioner and can have a maximum of 10 Information Commissioners. /IANS