When IAS Officers Pass The Baton To Spouses

The phenomenon has surfaced across states and, more recently, at the level of the Union government too. The examples range from IAS couples who took turns as Chief Secretary to those whose careers intersected around other Secretary-level positions.

For example, in the Union government, Manoj Govil and Pallavi Jain Govil, both belonging to the Madhya Pradesh cadre, have held the Secretary-level position in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs at different periods. 

Manoj Govil served as the Secretary, Corporate Affairs, between October 2022 and August 2024, and his wife Pallavi Jain Govil was appointed to the same secretary-level post in August 2026. Her appointment is one of the most recent examples of an IAS couple occupying the same senior Union government position.

States And Secretaries

Among the most striking recent examples from states are V. Venu and Sarada Muraleedharan, both 1990-batch IAS officers and spouses. Venu served as Kerala’s Chief Secretary from 28 February 2021 to 30 June 2023. Muraleedharan later occupied the same office from 1 September 2024 to 30 April 2025. 

Their case became particularly notable because both reached the state’s highest bureaucratic position despite belonging to the same IAS batch. Muraleedharan’s tenure followed Venu’s, although not immediately.

Jharkhand cadre IAS officers D.K. Tiwari and Alka Tiwari present an even more unusual bureaucratic trajectory. Tiwari served as Chief Secretary from April 2019 to March 2020 and subsequently went on to serve as State Election Commissioner. His wife Alka Tiwari became Chief Secretary in November 2024 and remained in the post until September 2025. She subsequently succeeded him as State Election Commissioner, giving the couple a rare connection to the same two senior positions at different periods of time where the wife followed the husband to the post.

The Case Of Karnataka

Karnataka perhaps has the clearest historical record of such successions. 

The earliest prominent example is B.K. Bhattacharya and Teresa Bhattacharya. B.K. Bhattacharya became Karnataka Chief Secretary in 1997 and retired at the end of December 2000. On 30 December 2000, Teresa Bhattacharya took charge of the same post, becoming Karnataka's first woman Chief Secretary. She continued until March 2002.

Incidentally, over two decades later, the state witnessed a strikingly similar episode involving Rajneesh Goel and Shalini Rajneesh. 

Rajneesh Goel, a 1986-batch officer, became Karnataka Chief Secretary in December 2023. When he retired on 31 July 2024, his wife, Shalini Rajneesh, a 1989-batch IAS officer, was chosen to succeed him.

When Shalini Rajneesh took over, the appointment was widely described as a repeat of the Bhattacharya precedent, making her the second wife in Karnataka to take over the Chief Secretary’s post from her husband.

In Maharashtra, there was a different version of the phenomenon, as Manoj Saunik and Sujata Saunik, both 1987-batch IAS officers, each served as Chief Secretary of the state, though not consecutively.

Manoj Saunik became Chief Secretary in April 2023 and retired at the end of that year. Nitin Kareer subsequently held the position briefly before Sujata Saunik took over on 30 June 2024. 

Sujata Saunik had been overlooked when her husband was chosen for the top post in 2023 and was again passed over when Kareer was appointed. Her eventual appointment made her the first woman to lead Maharashtra’s bureaucracy.

In Rajasthan, the case of D.B. Gupta and Veenu Gupta was somewhat different. D.B. Gupta became Chief Secretary in 2018, while Veenu Gupta subsequently figured prominently in the state’s senior bureaucratic hierarchy and was considered in the succession to the top post, though she failed to make the cut.

The Indian Administrative Service is built around individual careers, seniority, and years of administrative experience. But these examples illustrate an unusual feature of the civil services, as the same administrative chair can sometimes be occupied by two highly accomplished careers within one family.