The Centre on Friday appointed senior IAS officer Mandeep K Bhandari as chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), making him the third officer to head the board in less than four months following the controversy over its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
He also held additional charge as chief executive officer of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. A month later, he was appointed additional secretary in the Union home ministry while retaining additional charge of CBSE. HT had reported complaints from examiners and officials alleging unexplained changes in marks due to poor scanning of Class 12 answer sheets, technical glitches and concerns over procurement of the OSM system for the 2026 board examinations.
Bhandari, a 2001-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre, was serving as principal secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He was appointed principal secretary to the Lieutenant Governor on March 6, 2023. A medical graduate (MBBS), Bhandari spent nearly a decade, from 2009 to 2018, as additional chief executive officer of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. In January 2018, he moved to the Union government as private secretary to the Union minister in charge of higher education in the then Ministry of Human Resource Development. Lokhande had himself been appointed CBSE chairperson on June 2, replacing then chairperson Rahul Singh, who was transferred to the agriculture ministry.
The June 2 order approved Lokhande’s appointment as “Chairperson, Central Board of Secondary Education” in the rank and pay of additional secretary.
