Sushil Chandra is the 24th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of the Election Commission of India. He was appointed as CEC on 12 April 2021, and took charge on 13 April 2021. Earlier, he was part of the three-member panel of the Election Commission.
Wiki/Biography
Sushil Chandra was born on Wednesday, 15 May 1957 (age 64 years; as in 2021). Their zodiac sign is Taurus. After completing his schooling, Sushil Chandra went to IIT Roorkee and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1977. After this he went to DAV College, Dehradun to pursue LLB degree.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 6″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
There is not much information about his family.
Sushil Chandra with his wife at IITF
livelihood
Belonging to 1980 batch of Indian Revenue Service; Sushil Chandra has worked in various positions in the Income Tax Department for 39 years. Sushil served as Director of Investigation in Mumbai and then moved to Gujarat to serve as Director General of Investigation in CBDT. In November 2016, Sushil Chandra was appointed as the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). On 15 February 2019, Sushil Chandra was appointed as the Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India, and on 18 February 2020, he became a member of the Delimitation Commission established for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. In June 2019, Sushil was invited as an international election observer during Kazakhstan’s presidential election process. He has also attended training sessions on management in various institutions such as IMF, IIM Bengaluru and Wharton University, Pennsylvania.
Sushil Chandra with appointment letter as Election Commissioner
Facts/General Knowledge
- The Lok Sabha elections in 2019 were organized and conducted under the supervision of Sushil Chandra, Sunil Arora and Ashok Lavasa. Sushil Chandra also conducted elections in the states of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand in 2019. In 2020, Bihar became the first state to hold elections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With former CEC, Sunil Arora, Sushil Chandra and Ashok Lavasa
- Sushil Chandra took charge as the Chief Election Commissioner on 13 April 2021 and his tenure will end on 14 May 2022. Assembly elections will be held in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur under Sushil’s supervision.
- Sushil Chandra encouraged curbing the use of money during election campaign. He suggested deployment of special expenditure observers and other agencies to keep a watch during the campaigns.
- While contesting elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sushil Chandra introduced the use of IT applications in the process, which helped candidates file nomination papers online. He also introduced the postal ballot facility for specific categories of senior citizens, disabled persons, essential services workers and COVID-19 patients.
- In July 2019, Sushil Chandra was invited to the 18th Cambridge Conference on Electoral Democracy. This conference took place at Commonwealth Trinity College, Cambridge. He also attended the 3rd Plenary Assembly of the Global Network Electoral Justice Conference in Mexico and participated in the 2nd Electoral Studies Program Conference in Bali in December 2019.
Sushil Chandra (orange tie) at the Electoral Studies Program conference in Bali.
- In 2017, Sushil Chandra launched the ‘Operation Clean Money’ campaign with efforts to clean illicit funds and black money from the country. He also signed treaties with Switzerland to promote transparency between the banking services of India and Switzerland.
- Sushil Chandra’s brother-in-law, Arvind Goyal, was under investigation by the Uttar Pradesh government for buying and selling around 200 acres of land in Moradabad using black money. The transactions of these pieces of land took place between 2004 and 2017. Arvind was also joined by his brother, Vipin Goyal and allegedly purchased these lands in the name of 20 shell companies.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn