Centre revises CBSE chief’s appointment, assigns additional charge

Barely a month after appointing senior IAS officer Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as the full-time chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Centre on Thursday modified the arrangement, assigning him only the “additional charge” of the post, while he continues as additional secretary in the Union home ministry.

Barely a month after appointing senior IAS officer Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as the full-time chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Centre on Thursday modified the arrangement, assigning him only the “additional charge” of the post, while he continues as additional secretary in the Union home ministry.

An order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training’s (DoPT) Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on July 2 said Lokhande, an IAS officer of the 2001 AGMUT cadre serving as additional secretary in the Department of Home under the Union home ministry, will hold the additional charge “until appointment of regular incumbent to the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.”

The latest order marks a departure from the ACC’s June 2 notification, which had approved Lokhande’s appointment as “Chairperson, CBSE” in the rank and pay of additional secretary. Unlike Thursday’s notification, the earlier order was a regular appointment and did not describe the CBSE assignment as an additional-charge arrangement.

The change comes a month after the Centre carried out a sweeping overhaul of CBSE’s top leadership amid the controversy surrounding the board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.

On June 2, the government transferred then CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh to the agriculture ministry, prematurely repatriated secretary Himanshu Gupta to his parent cadre, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), appointed Lokhande as the new CBSE chief and named Varun Bhardwaj as secretary.

On June 2, the government also ordered a one-member inquiry headed by former Union secretary S. Radha Chauhan to examine the procurement of services related to the OSM system following allegations of irregularities in the digital evaluation process.

The July 2 order indicates that Lokhande will now oversee CBSE only as an interim arrangement while continuing with his responsibilities in the Ministry of Home Affairs, pending the appointment of a regular chairperson.

The leadership change at CBSE followed the controversy over the board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system after Hindustan Times reported complaints from examiners and officials alleging irregularities in the digital evaluation process, including unexplained changes in marks, technical glitches and concerns over the procurement of the system.