Overview

• A Ministry of Personnel communique signed by Under Secretary Bhupinder Pal Singh confirmed Pant’s service will continue from July 1 to December 31 under AIS (Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rule 16(1).
• The state administration submitted its request on June 28 to defer the retirement of the 1991-batch IAS officer originally due on June 30.
• Pant has earned a reputation for managing the RG Kar Medical College junior doctors’ hunger strike, overseeing the response to the post-Supreme Court teachers’ agitation, and containing communal unrest in Murshidabad.
• After taking office as chief secretary in September 2024, he superseded five senior officers to lead the West Bengal bureaucracy.
• His earlier career includes serving as district magistrate in Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas, private secretary to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and senior adviser at the World Bank.