After 57 transfers over 33 years, senior IAS officer Khemka retires

Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ashok Khemka, known for his bureaucratic integrity and uprightness, retired from the service on Wednesday after a career spanning over three decades. The 1991-batch officer of Haryana cadre was transferred 57 times in 33 years — nearly two postings a year — primarily for exposing alleged irregularities, taking on vested interests, and refusing to toe the line in politically sensitive matters.

Khemka’s uncompromising stand against corruption first brought him into national headlines in 2012 when he cancelled the mutation of a Gurugram land deal between Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate developer DLF.

The decision, which led to immediate backlash from the then Congress-led government in Haryana, set the tone for what would become a career marred by frequent punitive transfers.