Darla Sunil Kumar Gets Three-Month Extension as Director Finance, Northern Coalfields Limited

Darla Sunil Kumar, Director (Finance) at South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), has been given a three-month extension of his additional charge as Director (Finance) at Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), with effect from June 15, 2026, according to an official order issued this week.

Northern Coalfields Limited, headquartered in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, is a Schedule A public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Coal and a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. NCL is one of the largest open-cast mining companies in the country, with a coal production target that runs into hundreds of millions of tonnes annually. The Director (Finance) is a board-level position responsible for the corporation's financial planning, capital expenditure, and revenue management — functions that are particularly consequential given NCL's infrastructure-heavy operations and its dependence on government pricing policy for coal dispatch.

Darla Sunil Kumar holds a chartered accountancy background and has been serving as Director (Finance) at SECL, another CIL subsidiary, based out of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. His career in the public sector coal space has been spent within the Coal India group, where the Director (Finance) cadre is among the most specialised and closely watched at the corporate level. Managing the books of a company with thousands of crores in annual revenue, equipment procurement cycles, and land acquisition costs requires the kind of domain expertise that makes double-charging across subsidiaries a common short-term arrangement when a vacancy arises.

Sunil Kumar was first given the additional charge of Director (Finance) at NCL to cover a vacancy that emerged at the board level. The current three-month extension from June 15 carries the arrangement forward pending either a fresh appointment through the Public Enterprises Selection Board or the regularisation of the position through the Ministry of Coal.

PESB-level appointments for Director (Finance) posts at Schedule A PSUs follow a structured search-and-select process that can take several months from the time a vacancy is officially notified. During this period, the practice of entrusting the charge to a Director-level officer from a peer subsidiary is standard. NCL's finance operations continue without interruption under this arrangement, though a full-time appointment at the board level is the preferred administrative outcome.

NCL has been in the middle of an expansion phase, with production ramp-up tied to national coal evacuation targets. The Finance Director's role in clearing capital project approvals and managing working capital for operations becomes more demanding as throughput increases. An extended additional charge arrangement, while administratively convenient, limits the board's operational bandwidth for long-term financial planning decisions that require a full-time incumbent.

The extension order was issued by the Ministry of Coal and takes effect from June 15, 2026, for a period of three months or until a regular appointment is made, whichever is earlier.