Achal Kumar Jyoti (born 23 January 1953) is a retired 1975

IAS officer The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

cadre who served as 21st

Chief Election Commissioner of India The Chief Election Commissioner of India heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and state legislatures and of President and Vice-President. This power of th ...

from 6 July 2017 to 23 January 2018.

Education

Achal Kumar Jyoti has graduate (

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

) and

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...

( MSc) degrees in Chemistry.

Career

Apart from serving as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. Achal Kumar Jyoti served as one of the Election Commissioners in the Election Commission of India before his appointment as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. He has also served in key positions for both Gujarat and Union Governments, like as the Chief Secretary of

, Additional Chief Secretary (General Administration), Principal Secretary (Finance), managing director of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, Secretary (Industries), Secretary (Revenue), Secretary (Water Supplies) and as the

District Magistrate and Collector A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal revenu ...

Kheda Kheda, also known as Kaira, is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was former administrative capital of Kheda district. India's First Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel Was Born In Kheda District of Gujarat State ...

, Panchmahals,

Surendranagar Surendranagar Dudhrej is a municipality in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Dudhrej municipality is directly connected with Wadhwan city and Wadhwan municipality. Etymology Dudhrej was originally a nes (hamlet) settled ...

districts in

Gujarat Government The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciar ...

, and as the Chairman of Kandla Port Trust in the Union Government. He's been involved in 16 state assembly elections as an election commissioner, including five as chief election commissioner and a presidential and a vice presidential election.

Controversies

During the elections to the legislative assemblies of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

and

in November-December 2017, Jyoti delayed the announcement of the dates for the Gujarat election, despite that in 2012, the dates for both states were announced on the same day. Jyoti later clarified that

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

relief work in Gujarat was the reason for delay. However,

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

after speaking to the officials of the flood affected districts, found out that the flood relief work was completed weeks ago and his claim was fals

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/flood-relief-delayed-gujarat-election-dates-this-is-what-officials-say-1766803] During the Gujarat Assembly elections that were held in December 2017, the Election Commission Of India (ECI) issued a notice to

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president o ...

for violating the model code of conduct, by appearing for an interview with a Gujarati News Channel. While the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

claimed that ECI ignored the sitting Prime Minister,

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

along with Amit Shah (BJP Party chief) and

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jai ...

(

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

) for violating Code of conduct on several occasions.

References

External links

Executive Record Sheet as maintained by Department of Personnel and Training of Government of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jyoti, Achal Kumar Living people Indian Administrative Service officers 1953 births Chief Election Commissioners of India People from Punjab, India