Mandeep K. Bhandari appointed CBSE chairman amid exam-system scrutiny
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Mandeep K. Bhandari’s appointment as chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education, temporarily upgrading the post to Additional Secretary rank. The IAS officer takes charge after concerns over scanned answer books and technical problems in CBSE’s first full rollout of digital evaluation.
Mandeep K. Bhandari has been appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education at a time when the board’s digital examination reforms remain under scrutiny. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment on September 25.
The post has been temporarily upgraded to the rank and pay of an Additional Secretary. Bhandari is a 2001-batch IAS officer from the AGMUT cadre. He moves to the CBSE after more than two decades in public administration, including assignments in Jammu and Kashmir and positions in the central government.
Before joining the civil service, Bhandari studied medicine and completed an MBBS with a gold medal at Dayanand Medical College in Ludhiana. His administrative roles have included deputy commissioner of Leh and Jammu, divisional commissioner of Jammu and chief executive officer of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. At the Centre, he served as private secretary to the Union human resource development minister from January to September 2018 and later became joint secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Before his CBSE appointment, he was principal secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and again held charge of the Vaishno Devi shrine board. His appointment follows CBSE’s first full-scale use of on-screen marking for Class 12 answer-book evaluation in 2026. Under the system, physical answer books were scanned and made available digitally to evaluators.
After results were released, students reported blurred or missing pages and alleged that some had received another student’s answer book. Technical problems were also reported in payment and post-result services. The government formed a committee led by S.
Radha Chauhan, chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to examine procurement for the system. CBSE has defended the integrity of its evaluation process and said some scanning allegations were factually incorrect. Bhandari will now oversee preparations for the next academic and examination cycle.
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