MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a member of the selection Committee charged for appointing the Chief Information Commissioner and knowledge Commissioners under the Freedom of Information Act, has requested that all of the search committee's recommendations be withdrawn. The Congress leader alleges that the Search Committee made recommendations on the basis of arbitrary criteria, without providing any reasons for why the selected applicants are more qualified than all those who applied for the positions.

According to reports, the Committee has largely picked bureaucrats, making it look as a "cosy club" of senior public employees who were given post-retirement sinecures in exchange for their political masters' loyalty. Surprisingly, despite the fact that a large number of academicians, scientists, historians, human rights activists, and people with legal or welfare work backgrounds applied for the CIC and IC positions, the Search Committee was unable to find even one suitable, independent candidate from the talent pool. According to Chowdhury, the Search Committee acted in contravention of the Supreme Court's decision in Anjali Bhardwaj & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors., in which the Search Committee was expressly instructed to make public the names and criteria of the applicants who applied for the aforementioned positions.

He has admitted that one of the two candidates chosen for the position of CIC from a pool of 139 applications was an IFS official who mostly works abroad, lacks domestic expertise, and is essentially free from the RTI Act, 2005 by virtue of his position. "Someone with greater on-the-ground domestic experience in the fields of service delivery, law, science, human rights, and issues that concern the general population in their day-to-day lives, etc., should be recommended for the position of CIC," Chowdhury adds. Similarly, one of the six names shortlisted for the job of ICs does not appear on the DoPT's list of 355 candidates for the position of ICs.

He has asked the Cabinet Secretary, who also serves as Chairman of the Search Committee, to explain why the Search Committee chose to call Shri Uday Mahurkar, an outspoken supporter of the governing party and its philosophy, within one week.