The Story so far: Prakash Rajpurohit, an IAS officer of the 2010 batch, has been appointed as a Deputy Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India (ECI) filling the vacancy caused by the premature repatriation of Sanjay Kumar, who was in-charge of the Electoral Rolls and IT division. Sanjay Kumar, who had been DEC from August 2024 till August this year had signed the ECI’s June 24, 2025, order initiating the SIR in the country. The appointment is important as the two Election Commissioners S.S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had written to Cabinet Secretary on how files of the ECI IT department head Dr Seema Khanna not being routed through Mr. Kumar, who was a seasoned officer, was a violation.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister approves appointments under CSS. However, the ACC has delegated the powers for issuing appointment orders in respect of Deputy Secretary/Director rank officers to the Establishment Officer after obtaining recommendations of the Civil Services Board and approval of the Minister in-Charge of the concerned Ministry. Two Election Commissioners S.S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had written to Cabinet Secretary on how files of the ECI IT department head Dr Seema Khanna not being routed through Sanjay Kumar, who was a seasoned officer and in-charge of voter rolls and IT, was a violation.
Khanna’s files should go straight to the Election Commissioners from then. The work allocation within the bureaucrats is done by a designated officer who is the Deputy Election Commissioner (Administration). With the new addition to the ECI, it remains to be seen what kind of work rejig is affected and whether it addresses the concerns of the two ECs, specially ahead of the crucial Assembly polls scheduled early next year.
Before the repatriation of Sanjay Kumar to his parent cadre, Dr Khanna’s files had been routed through him till she was given a promotion to Level 15 which is equivalent to the rank of an Additional Secretary, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) sources. Since Mr Kumar was of the rank of a Joint Secretary (which is level 14), Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg issued an internal order that Dr.
