Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has appointed Mr D.K. Jain, additional chief secretary (ACS) in the finance department, as chief secretary, superseding two more senior officials.
ACS (rehabilitation) Medha Gadgil, who is the senior most among the state’s top bureaucrats, and ACS (home) Sudhir Shrivastava, the second most senior official, have been bypassed.
Mr Jain’s appointment in place of Mr Sumit Mullick, who retired on Monday, is likely to get challenged in court, the sources said. Transfers of a few more senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials are expected soon.
An officer of the 1983 batch of IAS, Mr Jain is reckoned as a strict officer. The two superseded officials also belong to the same batch of IAS.
Mr Fadnavis had apparently not considered Ms Gadgil as her husband is a member of the legislative council (MLC) and the spokesperson of the Congress. Mr Shrivastava is reckoned as a no-nonsense officer, who has some differences with the chief minister and a few ministers. So, Mr Fadnavis preferred Jain who will get a tenure of nine months and will retire on January 31, 2019.
