Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the Opposition in Bengal, on Tuesday termed "illegal" appointment of Nandini Chakravorty, a 1994-batch IAS officer, as the home secretary.

Suvendu threatened to move the court alleging the state government elevated a relatively junior officer to the post meant for a senior IAS officer.

“To ensure that the illegally appointed acting DGP of WB; Rajeev Kumar is allowed a free run, the WB Govt has now illegally posted a junior IAS officer; Nandini Chakravorty, as Principal Secretary; Home Department superseding 13 Additional Chief Secretaries and another 5 Principal Secretaries who are senior to her,” Suvendu wrote in his X handle on Tuesday.

Suvendu quoted the IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations and the IAS (Pay) Rules to buttress his claim that one of the senior-most IAS officers should be appointed in the post of home secretary.

Senior bureaucrats said that there was no hard and fast rule to appoint such a person as home secretary.

"It is the prerogative of the chief minister who she wants as home secretary. It is a tradition in Bengal that an IAS officer in the rank of additional chief secretary is appointed to the post of home secretary. But the tradition has not always been followed here since Atri Bhattacharya, who was a principal secretary in 2017, was appointed as home secretary superseding all additional chief secretaries,” said a bureaucrat.

Suvendu also urged the IAS Association in the state to raise its voice against the “illegal appointment.”

“While I will be moving the appropriate forum, legal and otherwise, against this, I exhort the @IASassociation to protest against the mischief being carried out by this corrupt TMC govt leading to total usurpation of IAS authority and breakdown of hierarchy in West Bengal Administration,” Suvendu wrote on his X handle.

A senior bureaucrat opined that the argument of always posting a senior IAS officer in the position of state home secretary may not be a strong one, but Suvendu’s assumption that a relatively junior officer was appointed as the home secretary to give a free hand to Rajeev Kumar, the new DGP, did hold ground.

“It was clear that the government would not appoint any senior officer in the post following tradition only because it wants the 1989-batch IPS officer, Rajeev Kumar, to have a free hand in running the show in the home department,” said the bureaucrat.