Satish Sethi Appointed Joint Secretary at Lokpal, Succeeding Abhishek Bhagotia

Satish Sethi, an officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service belonging to the 2000 batch, has been appointed Joint Secretary at the Lokpal under the Department of Personnel and Training. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the posting for an overall tenure of five years running up to July 16, 2028, or until further orders, whichever comes first, according to an order issued on August 10.

Sethi takes over from Abhishek Bhagotia, an IAS officer of the 2007 Assam-Meghalaya cadre who had been serving as Joint Secretary at the anti-corruption ombudsman body since 2024. The Lokpal was constituted under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act of 2013 to provide an institutional mechanism for examining allegations of corruption against specified categories of public functionaries, and its Joint Secretary handles the administrative and coordination functions that keep the institution's inquiries and investigations moving.

Sethi joined the IA&AS in December 2000 after qualifying through direct recruitment and has spent much of his career in public audit roles under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He has served as Accountant General in Rajasthan, held multiple positions within the CAG's office, and was posted as Director of Audit at the Embassy of India in Washington DC, an assignment that exposed him to the financial oversight of India's overseas missions. He holds an MBA in Finance and a BE in Chemical Engineering, and carries professional certifications as a Certified Internal Auditor from Florida and a Certified Information Systems Auditor from Illinois.

Immediately before this appointment, Sethi was serving as Executive Director at the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, a post he took charge of in July 2023 after serving as Principal Director in the CAG's office. At IBBI, he was involved in the regulatory functioning of India's insolvency resolution framework, working alongside the board's other executive directors on matters of process oversight and compliance under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

His move to the Lokpal follows his empanelment for Joint Secretary-level posts earlier this year, when the Centre cleared 41 officers across services, including three from the IA&AS, for elevation to the rank. Officers from the audit and accounts service bring financial scrutiny experience that is increasingly sought after in institutions handling corruption complaints, where forensic examination of accounts and asset disclosures forms a routine part of the workload.

The appointment places an accounts-service officer in a role historically rotated among IAS and other Group A officers, and Sethi's audit background is expected to be an asset given the volume of financial-impropriety complaints that route through the Lokpal's registry. The institution has faced periodic criticism over the pace of its case disposal, and the incoming Joint Secretary's administrative choices will shape how quickly backlogged references move through preliminary inquiry.

The order, numbered 33/15/2026-EO(SM-I), was issued by Director Annies Kanmani Joy and addressed to the Department of Personnel and Training under Secretary Rachna Shah, with copies marked to the Prime Minister's Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.