CEC Gyanesh Kumar's Family: A Household of Civil Servants

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Kerala cadre, has drawn public attention not only for his role at the helm of the Election Commission of India but also for a family that is steeped in the civil services.

Kumar, who retired on January 31, 2024, was appointed Election Commissioner on March 15, 2024, and later rose to become the Chief Election Commissioner. He is currently at the centre of a political controversy over the electoral process and the implementation of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Media reports have alleged that he disregarded the advice of fellow Election Commissioners on several key decisions; the allegations have not been independently verified. Two Election Commissioners were reported to have described certain changes as "illegal" and "unauthorised" and sought their immediate revocation in the interest of new voters, even as the Commission incorporated the changes into Form 6, used by first-time voters to register.

A BTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur, Kumar went on to study Business Finance at ICFAI and Environmental Economics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Over his career he served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, and Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation.

His elder daughter, Medha Roopam, is the District Magistrate of Noida. A shooting championship medallist, she studied Economics before securing the 10th rank in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2013 and joining the IAS. She served in several districts of Uttar Pradesh before her Noida posting, and was recently in the news after the Allahabad High Court directed her to pay compensation in a case.

His younger daughter, Abhishri, is an Indian Revenue Service officer. A graduate of St Stephen's College, Delhi, she cleared the civil services examination in 2017 with an All India Rank of 297 and is currently posted as an Assistant Commissioner in the Income Tax Department.

Both of Kumar's sons-in-law are also IAS officers. Manish Bansal, married to Medha Roopam, is a 2014-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre officer serving as the District Magistrate of Agra. He studied BTech and MTech at IIT Delhi and secured the 53rd rank in the civil services examination. The younger son-in-law, Akshay Labroo, is married to Abhishri; the two were batchmates who met during training and married in 2020. Labroo, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, graduated from the University of Delhi and took a master's degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University, clearing the examination in his first attempt in 2017.

Other family members also hold senior government positions. Kumar's brother, Manish Kumar, is an IRS officer, while his brother-in-law, Upendra Jain, is a 1991-batch Indian Police Service officer.