The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of senior IAS officer Mandeep K Bhandari as Chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education on 25 September 2026. Bhandari, a 2001 batch officer of the AGMUT cadre serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, succeeds Lokhande Prashant Sitaram. His posting gives the board its first full time chief in nearly four months after a period of interim charge and controversy over digital evaluation.
Who Is the New Chairman of CBSE?
Mandeep K Bhandari is the current Chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (as of September 2026). The 2001 batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer was appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on 25 September 2026. He succeeded Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, who held additional charge of the post.
The order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, which acts as the secretariat for senior appointments. The government has placed the CBSE Chairperson post in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the Government of India. Bhandari will head the board under the Ministry of Education. Lokhande, also a 2001 batch AGMUT cadre officer, continues in his main role in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
What Is CBSE?
The Central Board of Secondary Education, universally known by its short form CBSE, is the national school education board that affiliates schools and conducts public examinations. CBSE functions as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi, with regional offices across the country.
CBSE traces its roots to the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Rajputana, set up in 1929 with headquarters at Ajmer. It received its present name, the Central Board of Secondary Education, in 1952. The board was reconstituted in its modern form on 1 July 1962 after the merger of the Delhi Board. Its registered office continues at Ajmer, while the main headquarters operates from Delhi, now at the integrated office complex in Dwarka.
The board affiliates more than 28,000 schools in India and in about two dozen countries abroad. It conducts the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations every year, prescribes curriculum based largely on NCERT books from Classes 9 to 12, and declares results through the official portals cbse.gov.in and cbseresults.nic.in. Results are also made available through DigiLocker. CBSE also frames affiliation bye laws, sets examination norms, trains teachers, and supports students whose parents hold transferable jobs in government and public sector services.
How Was the Appointment Made?
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, usually shortened to ACC, approved Bhandari as CBSE Chairperson. The ACC is the high level panel that decides postings of senior officers to key central posts. It is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes the Minister of Home Affairs as member. The Establishment Officer Division of the Department of Personnel and Training processes its decisions and issues the formal orders.
Bhandari was appointed as part of a wider bureaucratic reshuffle cleared on 25 September 2026. Before this order, Lokhande Prashant Sitaram was holding the CBSE post only as additional charge along with his post of Additional Secretary in the Department of Home in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The revised arrangement gives CBSE a regular full time Chairperson. The decision places an officer with long experience in district administration, health and shrine board management at the top of the school board.
Who Is Mandeep K Bhandari?
Mandeep K Bhandari is a 2001 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service in the AGMUT cadre. AGMUT stands for Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories, a joint cadre that also supplies officers to Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. He entered the service through direct recruitment and records Punjab as his domicile state. He was born on 14 December 1974.
Bhandari trained as a doctor before joining the civil services. He completed his MBBS with a gold medal from Dayanand Medical College in Ludhiana under Panjab University, Chandigarh. His service record also notes qualifications in surgery and medicine. This medical background shaped his later postings in health administration.
At the time of his CBSE appointment, Bhandari was serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (as of September 2026). He had held that post since 6 March 2023 and also held additional charge as Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board. His career of more than two decades covers district, Union Territory and central government roles.
| Period | Post and Organisation |
|---|---|
| 2003 to 2005 | Sub Divisional Magistrate, Budgam |
| 2007 to 2008 | Deputy Commissioner, Leh |
| 2008 to 2009 | Deputy Commissioner, Jammu |
| 2009 to 2018 | Additional Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board |
| January to September 2018 | Private Secretary to the Union Human Resource Development Minister |
| September 2018 to January 2023 | Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare |
| From March 2023 | Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with charge of Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board |
Bhandari has also served as Commissioner and Secretary for Health and Medical Education in Jammu and Kashmir, as Divisional Commissioner of Jammu in 2017, and as an Additional Director on the board of Jammu and Kashmir Bank. His central stints in human resource development and health give him direct exposure to education and public health policy, both closely linked to school administration.
Why Did CBSE Change Leadership in 2026?
The change must be read with the debate over On Screen Marking, shortened to OSM. OSM is a system of digital evaluation in which physical answer books are scanned and examiners check the images on computers instead of paper copies. CBSE used full scale OSM for Class 12 answer books in the 2026 board examinations. The board held mock exercises and issued detailed circulars on teacher data and platform use in February 2026.
After the Class 12 results, some students said scanned copies on the portal were blurred, had missing pages, or did not match their handwriting. Others faced technical faults during verification and re evaluation. CBSE later issued notices on verification of scanned books, filed a complaint over cyber attacks on its post result portal, and clarified that a testing site cited in public claims held only sample data and was not used for real evaluation.
The government acted in June 2026. It shifted the then Chairperson Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta, ordered a one member inquiry under S Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to examine procurement of OSM services, and named new officers.
| Date | Leadership Decision |
|---|---|
| March 2024 to 2 June 2026 | Rahul Singh, 1996 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, served as CBSE Chairperson |
| 2 June 2026 | Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, 2001 batch AGMUT cadre officer, appointed Chairperson and Varun Bhardwaj, 2008 batch Indian Information Service officer, appointed Secretary |
| 2 July 2026 | Lokhande retained as CBSE Chairperson on additional charge while serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs |
| 25 September 2026 | Mandeep K Bhandari appointed as regular full time Chairperson, succeeding Lokhande |
Rahul Singh moved as Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Himanshu Gupta was repatriated to his parent cadre with an extended cooling off condition for future central deputation. Bhandari is therefore the third officer to lead the board in less than four months, and the first regular appointment after the interim arrangement.
What Lies Ahead for the New Chairperson?
The immediate task is to restore full confidence in evaluation and post result services. The inquiry report on OSM procurement, the findings on scanning quality and cyber security, and the fixes to verification and re evaluation will shape the next examination cycle. Smooth conduct of the Class 10 and Class 12 examinations in 2027, timely declaration of results on cbseresults.nic.in and DigiLocker, and clear communication with schools, teachers and parents will be closely watched.
In the longer term, the Chairperson will guide affiliation standards, curriculum updates in line with national policy, teacher training, and safe use of digital tools such as the Saras portal and the teacher training portal. With peak interest in board results every April and May and in the new chairman query every June, steady leadership at CBSE directly affects lakhs of students, thousands of affiliated schools, and the credibility of school assessment in India.
Key Takeaways
- Mandeep K Bhandari was appointed CBSE Chairperson by the ACC on 25 September 2026 in the rank of Additional Secretary.
- Bhandari, a 2001 batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, succeeded Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, who held additional charge.
- Bhandari holds an MBBS with gold medal from Dayanand Medical College under Panjab University and was Principal Secretary to the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor.
- CBSE stands for the Central Board of Secondary Education, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education headquartered in New Delhi.
- The board in its present form was reconstituted on 1 July 1962 after roots going back to 1929 and renaming in 1952.
- The appointment follows the 2026 On Screen Marking controversy that led to leadership changes on 2 June 2026 and an inquiry into OSM procurement.
