In A First, Wife Takes Over Chief Secretary Post From Husband

For the first time in India’s history, a spouse took over the baton of a Chief Secretary post from her husband. This happened in the Southern state of Kerala, where the outgoing Chief Secretary, Dr V Venu IAS handed over the post to his wife, Sarada Murlidharan IAS. The historic moment happened at a formal handover ceremony at the secretariat in state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Both are IAS officers of the 1990 batch but Venu is several months older than his wife, who was next in seniority in the service.

Dr Shashi Tharoor, a former UN official and Member of Parliament from Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram shared a heartful note on the development on his X handle along with a video of the ceremony.

Dr Tharoor wrote:

“For the first time in India (at least as far as anyone can remember!), Kerala’s outgoing ChiefSecretary, Dr V, Venu, handed over the CS’s post to his wife, Sarada Murlidharan, at a formal handover ceremony at the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. Both are IAS officers of the 1990 batch but Venu is several months older than his wife, who is next in seniority in the service. A clip of the ceremony: the government was able to economise on the bouquet!”.

Dr Venu was accorded with a farewell event attended by the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Thrissur District Collector Arjun Pandian IAS shared on X that District Collectors from various Kerala districts have also joined the special with the retiring Chief Secretary Dr Venu V IAS, who handed over the reins to the Chief Secretary designate, Sarada Muraleedharan IAS. “Congratulations and Best wishes to Venu sir and Sarada ma’am,” Arjun Pandian IAS said.