The Government has quietly removed four independent directors from the board of the public sector oil giant Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). All four directors were appointed by the previous United Progressive Alliance Government for a three-year term in March this year, shortly before the process for general elections was set in motion.
The appointments were to be ratified at the IOC annual general meeting on Thursday but the company did not move a resolution in this regard leading to their cessation as directors. These directors were appointed by the high-level Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) of the previous government.
Sources close to the development said there was no inkling that the directors, two of whom were former bureaucrats, would be removed from the board. The first indication came when one of the directors sought to know why he had not been sent the agenda papers for the AGM held in Mumbai. It later transpired that this was because IOC had already made a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. “K. Jairaj, Nesar Ahmad, Sunil Krishna and Sayan Chatterjee have ceased to be independent directors on the board of the company on August 27, 2014,’’ said the IOC missive to the stock exchange.
IOC had eight independent directors. Of the four, whose appointments were not ratified, two were former senior government officials — former Karnataka Additional Chief Secretary K. Jairaj and former Secretary to the Government of India Sayan Chatterjee. Of the other two, Sunil Krishna was former DG of National Human Rights Commission while Nesar Ahmed was a senior office bearer of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
