State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is preparing for a record third interim chairman as no full-time head of India’s most profitable company has yet been selected in 17 months since the post fell vacant, sources said.

ONGC is without a regular chairman and managing director since April 2021. Subhash Kumar, the senior-most director on the company board and the director for finance, was named officiating head after Shashi Shanker superannuated on March 31, 2021. And when Kumar retired on December 31, 2021, Alka Mittal, Director for Human Resources, was given an additional charge.

Mittal will superannuate at month-end and unless she is given an extension, the next senior-most director, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, Director (Exploration), is likely to be named as interim head, two officials with knowledge of the matter said.

The third interim chairman – a record for ONGC – is being talked about as the government is yet to even identify a full-time head.

A search-cum-selection committee, which was in February this year tasked to identify suitable candidates, began work only this month after terms of reference were finalised.

The panel has shortlisted nine candidates on the basis of higher eligibility age limit proposed by the oil ministry, which brought most existing directors – who otherwise were ineligible to even apply, in the zone of consideration, they said.

The shortlisted include Mittal and Srivastava as well as three other directors on the ONGC board – Om Prakash Singh, Director (Technology & Field Services); Pankar Kumar, Director (Offshore) and Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore).

The other shortlisted candidates are outside of ONGC and include heads of oil marketing companies, the officials said.

The panel will interview the candidates and send recommendations to the oil ministry, which will forward it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime Minister for final vetting and approval.

The committee shortlisted candidates on the basis of the oil ministry’s revised eligibility criteria that raised the eligibility age.

The ministry proposed that any candidate to be eligible for consideration should not be more than 60 years of age on the date of occurrence of vacancy, according to the ministry’s office memorandum sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on June 17.

The vacancy arose on March 31, 2021. Prior to this change, the minimum age prescribed for being eligible for the top job is 45 years. Besides, internal candidates needed to have two years of residual service as on the date of vacancy and three years for external candidates.

What the ministry proposed was that any eligible candidate who is not more than 60 years of age at the time of occurrence of vacancy which was April 1, 2021, should be considered eligible. This essentially meant that the current acting chairman, Alka Mittal, who otherwise would retire in August-end and was ineligible, would come under the zone of consideration.

Also, Srivastava, who retires on December 31, and Sharma, who superannuates on February 28 next year, have become eligible.

Previously, only Pankaj Kumar and Om Prakash Singh were eligible. The ministry also proposed appointment for a period of three years from the date of joining instead of the present five-year term, according to the letter.