The centre has granted Sujata R Karthikeyan, the wife of BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s close aide V K Pandian, voluntary retirement from government service. The approval of her request was communicated to Odisha Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja by Under Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions, Bhupinder Pal Singh, through a letter.
Senior IAS officer Sujata Karthikeyan, spouse of former IAS officer and politician VK Pandian, has resigned from the Indian Administrative Service through voluntary retirement (VRS), sources report. pic.twitter.com/zuD18CBhUn
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 29, 2025
“It is to convey that Central Government has approved the request of Voluntary Retirement of Smt. Sujata R Karthikeyan, IAS (RR-2000) from IAS with effect from 13.03.2025, in relaxation of three months’ mandatory notice period under Rule 16 (2A) of AIS (DCRB) Rules, 1958. Further, Govt, of Odisha is requested to issue necessary ‘notification’ in this regard,” the letter read.
Sujata, a 2000-batch officer, was the special secretary in the finance department. Her bureaucrat-turned-politician husband, V K Pandian, had also taken voluntary retirement in October 2023 and joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Patnaik. However, he quit active politics in the wake of the BJD’s defeat in the assembly polls last year.
In 2024, the Election Commission had ordered Karthikeyan’s transfer to a department where she would not deal with the public following allegations of misuse of her office. She was then serving as the commissioner-cum-secretary of the Department of Mission Shakti. She went on a six-month leave after the BJP lost the 20204 assembly polls. She was granted leave till November 26 last year, but her application for extension was rejected by the state’s BJP government.
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