Kapil Dev Tripathi appointed Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed Mr. Tripathi

Kapil Dev Tripathi. File

Kapil Dev Tripathi was on Monday appointed Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The 1980-batch retired IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre will replace Sanjay Kothari, who was selected as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner in February. Mr. Tripathi’s tenure is on a contract basis and is co-terminus with the tenure of the President.

Mr. Tripathi, who retired as the Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June 2018, was heading the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) that does top-level recruitments in the central public sector enterprises.

His appointment comes nearly two months after Mr. Kothari, a 1978 batch (retired) IAS officer of Haryana cadre, was selected as the next CVC. However, the government has not notified the appointment as finding his successor took time.

Mr. Kothari’s selection as the next CVC was opposed by Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a member of the selection committee, who sent two dissenting notes to the Prime Minister.