In 2018 the Maharashtra government appointed D.K. Jain as chief secretary, the head of the state’s civil service. Two officers from his own 1983 batch of the Indian Administrative Service, Medha Gadgil and Sudhir Shrivastava, ranked above him in seniority within the batch. Both “proceeded on protest leave,” ThePrint reported.
“It is extremely embarrassing and humiliating for any officer to work under their juniors,” a senior IAS officer told ThePrint. Rakesh Srivastava, a former president of the IAS Association, described the usual practice: “Typically, when a junior is appointed the chief secretary, seniors are posted out of the secretariat.”