Rajasthan chief secretary Sudhansh Pant will step down from the top post even before taking over as secretary department for social justice and empowerment at centre. Pant was to join the social justice department on December 1, 2025 replacing his batchmate Amit Yadav, who is retiring this month.
According to the latest order of Appointments Committee, Pant has been temporarily posted as officer on special duty (OSD) in the cabinet secretariat till he takes over from Amit Yadav.
Meanwhile, Pant's replacement V Srinivas, who is serving S secretary in administrative reforms and pensions department, has been repatriated from centre.
Pant is the only chief secretary to serve central government twice as secretary.
Pant will start his second innings as a secretary in central government on December 1, after a brief hiatus of 22 months when he was asked to come back to home cadre Rajasthan to serve as chief secretary. Before that Pant also served as health secretary at centre.
Pant is not the only secretary who was sent to home cadre as chief secretary. But he is the only one who has been called back to centre.
In recent times, it started off with Durga Shankar Mishra, who was sent to Uttar Pradesh from centre to take over as chief minister with barely two days before his retirement on December 29, 2021. He was the serving as secretary in urban development and housing department at centre. Mishra then continued to serve on extension till June 2024 becoming one of the longest serving chief secretary on extension.
Atal Dulloo, a 1989 batch IAS officer became the first native officer of Jammu Kashmir to become chief secretary on December 1, 2023. He was also repatriated from centre to his home cadre and native state. He was then serving as secretary, border management.
In Odisha, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh also, centre sent union secretaries back to their home cadres to serve as chief secretaries. In Odisha Manoj Ahuja replaced Pradeep Kumar Jena to become first non Odiya IAS as chief secretary. He was then serving as union agriculture secretary. In Bihar also, Amrit Lal Meena was sent to clinch the position of chief secretary. Meena was then serving as coal secretary at centre.
In Madhya Pradesh, Anurag Jain, a 1989 batch IAS officer, who was serving as secretary road, transport and highways at centre, was sent to home cadre yo take over as chief secretary this month.
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