Retd IAS officers Sukhbir Sandhu, Gyanesh Kumar new ECs; Opposition questions selection method

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 14

Retired bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu were appointed Election Commissioners here on Thursday. The two were picked by a three-member selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting. The Law Ministry later issued a notification announcing the appointments.

SC to hear plea challenging CJI’s exclusion from panel to select CEC, ECs today

The panel, which also consists of Leader of the Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, selected the two officials from six shortlisted names.

“In this committee, government has the majority. Kumar from Kerala and Sandhu from Punjab have been selected as Election Commissioners,” Chowdhury was quoted by agencies as saying. He said he had given a dissent note, questioning the procedure of selection.

Both Sandhu and Kumar are retired IAS officers of the 1988 batch. While Sandhu was from Uttarakhand cadre, Kumar belonged to Kerala cadre. Sandhu has held key government positions, including that of the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and chairman of the NHAI.

Kumar has served as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Amit Shah-led Ministry of Cooperation. He played a key role in setting up the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust when he was in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Got 6 names 10 mins before meeting

They gave me a list of all 212 aspirants last night. Is it humanly possible to examine 212 names? Ten minutes before meeting, I got shortlist of six names. It was fait accompli. — Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, LoP

He also headed the J&K desk at the MHA in 2019 when Article 370 was made ineffective. He had retired as Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, under the ministership of Shah. The selection comes ahead of the announcement of Lok Sabha elections.

They will assist Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. The poll panel had been functioning with just Kumar at the helm after Anup Chandra Pandey retired on February 15 and Arun Goel stepped down as Election Commissioner last weekend.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was part of the panel chaired by Modi to select the two Election Commissioners, criticised the Centre over the law that replaced the Chief Justice of India by a Union Minister on the selection committee.

“The CJI should have been on this committee,” he said, adding the law brought last year had reduced the meeting to a “formality”. “The government is in the majority on the panel. What they want happens,” he told reporters after the meeting.

The Congress leader said he was given 212 names for scrutiny last night, and as he had reached Delhi only on Wednesday night, with the meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon, it was not “humanly possible” for him to scrutinise all names.

“Ten minutes before the meeting, I was given a shortlist of six names. It was fait accompli that the chosen two will be selected. However, I tried to intervene in an appropriate manner so as to bolster the institution. That’s why, before my arrival in Delhi, I sought a shortlist. They gave me a list of all candidates, numbering 212,” he said.

The six names shortlisted were that of Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.

Badal’s ‘favourite’ served on key posts

chandigarh: A 1988-batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu was considered one of the favourites of former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal.

Sandhu, who belongs to Baba Bakala in Amritsar district, served at several top positions both at district and state levels during the SAD-BJP government under Badal on deputation.

When Capt Amarinder Singh assumed office in 2002, Sandhu was repatriated to his parent cadre. After the SAD-BJP formed government in 2007, he was brought back and appointed Managing Director of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board as well as Special Principal Secretary to CM.

However, after Capt Amarinder returned to power in 2017, Sandhu was repatriated to the Centre. In 2021, he became Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand.

As Chairman of the NHAI under the Modi government at the Centre, Sandhu was instrumental in laying a network of national highways in Punjab.

As the Municipal Commissioner in Ludhiana, Sandhu carried out a major anti-encroachment drive and was honoured with President’s Medal. — TNS

At helm during J&K’s Art 370 abrogation

Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer from Kerala cadre, oversaw the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to J&K, during his stint in the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2019. Kumar served as Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Cooperation. He played a key role in setting up of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

In 2014, he was deputed by Kerala to evacuate 46 nurses stuck in war-torn Iraq’s Erbil.

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