CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra appointed as new chief election commissioner
Sushil Chandra, the current chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has been appointed as the next chief election commissioner. After his tenure ends with the CBDT, Chandra is slated to take charge of his new role from the current chief election commissioner, Sunil Arora, who was appointed to the post on December 2, 2018. Here are the details.
The development came to light after Satya Pinisetty, the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, tweeted a photo of Chandra's appointment letter. Chandra was appointed as the chairman of the CBDT, the Income Tax Department's apex policy-making body, on November 1, 2016. He is currently serving his second extension as CBDT chairman, and his watch is set to end in May this year.
CBDT Chairman and 1980 batch IRS officer Sushil Chandra appointed as Election Commissioner. pic.twitter.com/cvEAN3xKiS
— Satya Pinisetty (@SatyaPinisetty) February 14, 2019
Chandra is an IIT graduate, and a 1980-batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre). Notably, with his appointment as the chief election commissioner, Chandra has become the second IRS officer in the history of independent India to be given the post. Apart from Chandra, the only IRS officer to hold the post is TS Krishnamurthy, who was appointed in 2004.
While Chandra will not take charge of his post immediately, he will join the three-member poll panel comprising chief election commissioner Arora and election commissioner Ashok Lavasa that will oversee the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Top sources in the Election Commission (EC) told TNM that the presence of an IRS officer in the poll panel would help the agency deal with issues of expenditure.
