New Delhi: In a move that is expected to put in place a long-delayed plan and overhaul how the country’s top drug regulator is recruited, the Centre has notified new recruitment rules for the post of Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)—India’s apex drug regulator—widening the eligibility criteria and raising the age ceiling for applicants.
Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, who took charge as DCGI in February 2023, has been holding the post beyond his superannuation in February 2025—first on a one-year contractual extension, and now on a second such extension approved in February 2026, running until March 2027 or until a regular appointment is made, whichever is earlier.
The post has effectively been without a permanent incumbent for over a year, with Raghuvanshi receiving two back-to-back contract renewals as the government scrambled to revise rules that had left it with too few eligible candidates.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s new rules come four months after the government acknowledged in court that the 2011 framework was too restrictive to produce a sufficient pool of eligible candidates.
The DCGI heads the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)—India’s drug and medical device regulator under the health ministry. Every drug sold in the country, vaccines approved for public use, and medical devices cleared for hospitals require the DCGI’s sign-off. The DCGI enforces the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
What has changed in the recruitment rules
The most significant change is academic eligibility. The old rules restricted the position only to Pharmacy or medical graduates. The new notification throws the net far wider.
According to the new recruitment rules, a candidate must now hold a Master’s degree—not a graduate degree—in one of a broad range of disciplines, including Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutical Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Instrumentation Engineering, Polymer Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Medical Electronics Engineering, Bio-Chemistry, Chemistry, Life Sciences, or Medicine with a specialisation in Clinical Pharmacology or Microbiology.
A PhD in any of these fields will be “desirable” but not necessary.
A 15-year experience requirement is retained from the 2011 rules, but its scope has been significantly widened.
Under the old rules, experience counted only if it was in the manufacture or testing of drugs or enforcement of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The new notification extends it to cover regulation, clinical trials, clinical investigations, and medical devices.
The age ceiling has been raised from 56 to 58 years. The post will continue to be filled only through deputation, which is a government mechanism where a serving officer from another department is seconded to the role for a fixed period. No direct or open recruitment is allowed. The deputation period is capped at five years.
Under the new rules, the Union Public Service Commission must be consulted before any appointment is made. To be eligible, a candidate must be a serving officer from a Central or state government, a Union Territory, a public sector undertaking, an autonomous or statutory body, or a recognised university or research institution.
How the old rules created a succession problem
When the DCGI post was advertised in August 2024, 18 candidates applied, but only two were found eligible by the selection committee. Faced with such a limited pool, the government chose not to proceed with the appointment. Instead, it kept the recruitment rules in abeyance and extended the tenure of the incumbent DCGI, Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, on a one-year contract after his superannuation in February 2025, citing the absence of a suitable successor.
This decision was challenged before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court by petitioner D. Muthu, who filed a writ of quo warranto—a legal remedy used to question whether a person is lawfully entitled to hold a public office. The petition argued that Raghuvanshi’s continuation in office after retirement was unlawful and questioned the government’s decision to suspend recruitment rules while reappointing the same individual after formally advertising the vacancy.
During the proceedings, the Centre informed the court that only two of the 18 applicants met the eligibility criteria. It attributed this to the restrictive nature of the recruitment rules, stating that the prescribed qualifications and experience were confined to very specific domains, which significantly narrowed the pool of eligible candidates. The government argued that the “ambit of search must be broadened with a wider spectrum of qualifications and experience” and said it was in the process of revising the rules accordingly.
The court recorded this submission while summarising the Centre’s position. In November 2025, it dismissed the petition, accepting the contractual extension as a temporary arrangement and granting the government time to amend the recruitment rules and complete a regular appointment process.
When Raghuvanshi’s first contract ended, the appointments committee of the Cabinet approved a second one-year extension on 28 February 2026, again keeping the old rules in abeyance. He is now serving his second consecutive contractual term, with the latest extension running until 1 March 2027.
The notification issued Monday is expected to resolve the deadlock by widening eligibility and allowing the government to draw from a much larger pool of candidates.
Raghuvanshi, an IIT-BHU alumnus with a PhD from the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, served as secretary-cum-scientific director of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission before taking charge as DCGI in February 2023. He has also held senior leadership roles at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Ranbaxy Research Laboratories.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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