Chandrasekar S. Repatriated From Vice President's Secretariat With Extended Cooling-Off

Chandrasekar S., a 2014-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre serving as Private Secretary to Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, has been prematurely repatriated to his parent cadre. The Department of Personnel and Training issued the office memorandum on August 10, following the Kerala government's request conveyed through a communication dated June 18, 2026, and the order imposes the condition of an extended cooling-off period on the officer.

The Private Secretary to the Vice President functions at the Deputy Secretary level within the Vice President's Secretariat, handling the office's day-to-day coordination on a role that runs co-terminus with the Vice President's own term unless cut short earlier. The Secretariat directed that Chandrasekar be relieved of his duties immediately so that he can report to his parent cadre without delay, a phrasing that signals the government's intent to complete the transition without the customary handover period.

Chandrasekar was appointed to the post in September 2025, shortly after Radhakrishnan assumed office as Vice President, making him one of the first key administrative appointments in the new Vice President's Secretariat. Before that, he served as Deputy Director at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, the institution that trains incoming IAS officers, where his tenure was curtailed to free him for the Vice President's Secretariat posting. A civil engineering graduate from the College of Engineering, Guindy, he had earlier held leadership roles in Kerala's Labour and Employment department.

His appointment as Private Secretary was originally structured to run until February 28, 2028, covering the balance of his four-year central deputation tenure, or on a co-terminus basis with the Vice President's term, whichever ended first. The premature repatriation cuts that arrangement short by roughly a year and a half, an unusual outcome for a posting this close to the country's second-highest constitutional office.

The order does not detail the grounds behind Kerala's request for his return, though the imposition of an extended cooling-off period, rather than the standard restriction period applied in routine repatriations, indicates the government has treated the circumstances as warranting closer scrutiny before Chandrasekar becomes eligible for another central assignment. Cooling-off conditions of this kind typically extend the standard interval before an officer can be considered for fresh central deputation.

The Vice President's Secretariat, headed by Secretary Amit Khare, will need to identify a replacement Private Secretary from the central deputation reserve, a process that involves securing cadre clearance from the incoming officer's home state and briefing the new appointee on the Secretariat's ongoing administrative work, including scheduling, correspondence, and coordination with Parliament and other constitutional offices the Vice President interacts with in the discharge of official duties.

Chandrasekar's appointment last September had drawn attention as one of the first key administrative postings made after Radhakrishnan took office, and his exit now leaves the Secretariat managing a leadership transition in the Private Secretary's role less than a year into the current Vice President's term. Officers considered for such postings are typically drawn from the LBSNAA faculty or from Deputy Secretary-level central deputation officers with a track record in coordination-heavy assignments.

The office memorandum, numbered 21/4/2025-EO(MM-I) and dated August 10, 2026, was issued by Ajit Kumar Ranjan, Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, and addressed to the Vice President's Secretariat, with copies to the Prime Minister's Office, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Government of Kerala's Chief Secretary, Dr. A. Jayathilak.