Meet Sukhbir Singh Sandhu: Newly appointed Election Commissioner

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led panel appointed Former bureaucrat Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Thursday for the position of Election Commissioner. The appointment comes a few days after Arun Goel suddenly resigned from his position ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The committee met this morning to discuss and fill the vacant position. The panel consist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, law minister Arjun Meghwal and Leader of Opposition. After the committee discussion, Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury allegedly said that the procedure followed for selection of the Election Commissioners has some lacunae.

Who Is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu ?

Sukhbir Singh Sandhu is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1988 batch from Uttarakhand cadre. As per records, he is from Punjab and was born in 1963, Sukhbir served as the chief secretary of Uttarakhand.  He was also appointed as a chief secretary in 2021 after Pushkar Singh Dhami became the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Looking more into his work front, Sandhu held a position as the chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). He worked as an additional secretary in the Department of Higher Education.

Early Life

Sukhbir Singh Sandhu holds a prestigious degree and has been academically strong, he did his MBBS from Government Medical College and completed a Master's Degree in History from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. Besides this, he also holds a law degree. He has authored papers on 'Urban Reforms', 'Municipal Management and 'Capacity Building'. Sandhu was honoured with the President Medal for his services as Commissioner of, the Municipal Corporation in Ludhiana.