The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has appointed Ansuman Pattnaik, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, as Director General (Investigation). The DG is the independent investigation arm of the competition watchdog.

This is the first time CCI is appointing a DG after the enactment of Competition (amendment) Act, 2023, which provided the transfer of power of appointment of DG to CCI from the central government. 

In November, a selection committee headed by CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur had shortlisted three names for the post.

The appointment letter has now been handed over by CCI to Pattnaik, sources said. Pattnaik has been appointed as DG for a tenure of three years.

Prior to this appointment, Pattnaik was posted as Commissioner of Income Tax (Dispute Resolution Panel) at Delhi. 

Interestingly, Pattnaik was holding the additional charge of DG (investigation) at CCI from January 2019 to November 2019. He was also Additional Director General (Investigation) from August 2014 to November 2019.

Before the Competition (amendment) Act, 2023, the DG was appointed by the Centre and was accountable directly to the Central Government and not to the CCI.

Prior to Pattnaik’s appointment, Atul Verma, a 1991 batch IPS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, had served as the DG (investigation) and was relieved of his duties in November 2023. 

During his tenure as DG, Verma handled several high-profile investigations against big tech, including Google, Apple and Amazon, besides conducting dawn raids in several industries. 

Verma, who was appointed DG in June 2020 for three years, had twice got a deputation tenure extension, the first in May this year for a three-month period till the end of August 2023 and another three months till the end of November 2023.

Earlier, in July this year, the CCI had invited applications from Central and State government officers for the post of Director-General (Investigation) on deputation. The last date for submitting applications was September 15.

Before inviting applications, the Centre modified the recruitment rules — Competition Commission of India (Director-General) Recruitment Rules, 2009 — to alter the composition of the selection committee for the appointment of the DG. Earlier, the selection committee was headed by the Secretary, MCA, and now the Panel is headed by Chairperson CCI.

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