Ordinance promulgated to appoint Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary

May 28, 2014

The Centre promulgated an ordinance to clear the way for retired IAS officer and former chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Nripendra Misra’s appointment as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The ordinance expedited by the government designed to amend the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, 1997, which prohibits a chief of the regulatory body from “future employment under the central and state governments”.
When Misra was TRAI Chairman, he wrote to the Communications Ministry saying Section 5(h) of the TRAI Act, which forbade the head of the telecom regulator from seeking further employment, was unreasonable and should be eliminated. He argued that no such prohibitions applied to chairpersons and members of other important regulators like Competition Commission of India and SEBI.
As per Section 5(h) of the original TRAI Act, the chairperson of the regulatory body, upon ceasing to hold such office, shall be ineligible for further employment under the central or state government, and cannot accept any commercial employment for a period of 2 years. It is for this reason the Centre took ordinance route to amend the TRAI Act which was drafted by the Ministry of Law and Justice and moved for clearance by the Cabinet. After Cabinet nod, the legislation was sent to the President.

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