New Delhi: The Union Government appointed senior bureaucrats Lokhande Prashant Sitaram and Varun Bhardwaj as CBSE Chairman and Secretary on Tuesday.

The Government reshuffled the top leadership of the CBSE amid allegations of irregularities in the Class 12 On-Screen Marking (OSM) digital evaluation system. The Government transferred CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta after allegations of irregularities in the Class 12 On-Screen Marking (OSM) digital evaluation system.

Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, a 2001-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, has been appointed as the new CBSE Chairman. Varun Bhardwaj, a 2008-batch Indian Information Service (IIS) officer currently working as Director in the Ministry of Education, has been named the new CBSE Secretary.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the changes. Singh has been moved as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Himanshu Gupta has been prematurely repatriated to his parent cadre in the Ministry of Home Affairs on administrative grounds with an extended cooling-off condition, making him eligible for another central deputation only after December 12, 2030.

The reshuffle came hours after the government ordered a high-level probe into the procurement of services for the OSM system and constituted a one-member committee to examine the matter. The committee will be headed by S. Radha Chauhan and will investigate how the CBSE selected vendors for the online marking platform. It has been empowered to seek assistance from other departments and is required to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within one month. The memorandum was also shared with the Department of School Education and Literacy.