Finance Secretary TV Somanathan Appointed As Cabinet Secretary: DoPT order

Somanathan will be holding the office of the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Cabinet Secretariat till incumbent Guaba relinquishes the post on August 30. He has been appointed for a fixed tenure of 2 years in the office.

As reported earlier by The Secretariat, along with Somanathan, two of his batch mates, who were in the race for the top job included Gujarat Chief Secretary Raj Kumar and Jal Shakti Secretary Vini Mahajan (Punjab Cadre).

In the order, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) said, “The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Shri TV Somanathan IAS (TN: 87) as Cabinet Secretary with a tenure of two years from August 30, 2024.”

The DoPT further in its order said, “The ACC has also approved the appointment of Somanathan as Officer on Special Duty in the Cabinet Secretariat from the date he joins the assignment till he takes over as Cabinet Secretary.”

The Secretariat had also reported that Somanathan was leading the pack, who had excited fellow administrators in the service many years ago by engaging in a bitter fight with his then-political boss J Jayalalithaa, who didn’t accept his resignation.

Somanathan is known for his financial skills and he has also held the post the chief of the World Bank, where he had a long stint, requested then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to extend the bureaucrat’s lien to the organisation beyond the stipulated time and the then government had agreed to the request.

Somanthan is also known for his impeccable integrity and had a bitter tussle with the then-Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa early in his career. He had ordered a vigilance inquiry on a subject handled by her, and the chief minister was so incensed that she refused to even relieve him from the state for a central deputation.

Somanthan’s colleagues have high admiration for him for his ability to speak in chaste Hindi, which was showcased at a recent comprehensive presentation to the cabinet by all secretaries.

Once he demits the office of Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba will create history by becoming the longest-serving cabinet secretary of India. Gauba’s predecessor, Pradeep Kumar Sinha served for four years and 79 days, while the second Cabinet Secretary of independent India, YN Sukthankar, was in the post for four years and 78 days.

Gauba, a 1982-batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer, has been serving as the Cabinet Secretary in his third extension and will complete five years in the office on August 30, 2024.

Normally, a Cabinet Secretary can be given an extension beyond the fixed two-year tenure for another two years in two tranches. But during Sinha’s tenure, the rule was amended to extend it beyond four years, and he was given an extension for three months.

Last year while giving a third extension to Gauba, the government further relaxed the rules. In a statement, the government had then said, “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved extension in service to Rajiv Gauba, lAS (JH:82) as Cabinet Secretary for a further period of one year beyond 30.08.2023, in relaxation of AIS (DCRB) Rules, 1958 and Rule 56(d) of the Fundamental Rules.”

The outgoing Cabinet Secretary Gauba is credited with being the key architect of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, under which the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh- following the abrogation of the special status given to it under Article 370 of the Constitution.