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Tenure of three high profile offices – Union Home Secretary, Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB); and Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) – ending in the next few months, with suspense over whether the current incumbents will continue in the positions or newcomers will replace them. Since independence, none of these offices has been occupied by a woman.
The three officers were given a one-year extension in office in 2021 and belong to the 1984 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS).
On May 28, 2021, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) gave one year extension in service to IB Director Arvind Kumar and RAW Secretary. Samant Kumar Goyal,
His fixed two-year term would have ended on June 30, 2021. On August 12, 2021, the ACC gave a one-year extension to Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla beyond his fixed two-year term, which was to end on August 22, 2021. ,
Mr. Kumar, an IPS officer, and Mr. Bhalla, an IAS officer, belong to the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Mr. Goel, an IPS officer, is from the Punjab cadre.
General elections are due in the first half of 2024. If fresh appointments to these posts are made next year, they will have more than six months in their new offices until the model code of conduct comes into force and a new government is formed by May. 2024.
There is a feeling in the corridors of power that changes, if any, will have to be made this year as the government seeks continuity and a seasoned hand in the crucial election year.
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the then chiefs of IB and RAW – Rajiv Jain and AK Dhasmana respectively – were given six months’ extension in service in December 2018, beyond their two-year term as the Center wanted status quo after the general elections. Up to the top security checkpoints.
The post of Union Home Secretary, in accordance with the Fundamental Rules, 1922 governing the appointment and tenure of all Government servants; Director, IB; and the Secretary, RAW may be extended in the “public interest” by two years from the prescribed tenure of two years.
The extended tenure of another 1984 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), SK Mishra, Director, Enforcement Directorate (ED), is also to end in November 2022.
Days before his three-year term ended, the central government on November 14, 2021 issued two ordinances to allow the Center to extend the tenure of directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED. Two years to five years.
If the government is to end Mr Mishra’s extended five-year term, the officer could remain in office till November 2024. A Supreme Court judgment in 2017 had fixed a tenure of two years for the Director, ED, but under the new Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 (Rule 45 of 2003), the appointment rules have relaxed the tenure limit to five years. .
The amendment also applies to the post of Director, CBI under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Rule 25 of 1946), which extends the prescribed two-year term to five years.
The two-year term of the current CBI Director SK Jaiswal is ending in May 2023.