Trailblazing appointment: Liladevi Gadtoula becomes Nepal’s first female chief secretary

KATHMANDU: The government has appointed Liladevi Gadtoula as the Chief Secretary. The Cabinet meeting held on Thursday at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers made the decision to appoint Gadtoula as the Chief Secretary. Prithivi Subba Gurung, Minister for Information, Communication, Technology informed that Gadtoula has been appointed as the Chief Secretary. This marks the first time in the history of the Nepalese civil service, where 26 Chief Secretaries have served, that a woman has taken on this leadership role.

Chief Secretary Dr. Baikuntha Aryal is currently susp,ended due to corruption charges filed against him. Aryal was reassigned to a special position equivalent to the rank of Chief Secretary at the National Planning Commission on June 24.

The government, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the CPN (Maoist Center), had given the role of Acting Chief Secretary to Gadtoula, which was continued by the government led by KP Sharma Oli of the CPN (UML). Gadtoula was given the responsibility based on seniority at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

Gadtoula, who entered the civil service as a section officer in 1995 (2052 B.S.), will retire on September 1, 2024 (Bhadra 15, 2081 B.S.), due to the age limit. Thus, she will serve as Chief Secretary for about 35 days.

She is the first woman in Nepal’s administrative history to be given the roles of Acting and Acting Chief Secretary.

Liladevi Gadtoula’s Track Record in the Civil Service

Born in the former Piple, now part of Myanglung Rural Municipality in Tehrathum, Liladevi Gadtoula holds an IL and BL from Nepal Law Campus. In 1995, she was recommended as the top candidate for the position of section officer in the judiciary through open competition.

She was promoted to Under-Secretary in November 2006 (2063 B.S.) after waiting ten and a half years due to the lack of opportunities for higher studies like LLM in Nepal or abroad. During her tenure as section officer, she worked in the legal drafting section of the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs, contributing significantly to making legislation more gender-friendly. The Gender Equality Bill of 2006 was introduced through her initiative.

She also handwrote the draft law concerning officials of constitutional bodies. At that time, there were only two officers in the judicial law subgroup: Indira Dahal, now a Joint Secretary, and Gadtoula. After becoming an Under-Secretary, she worked for nine months in the Ministry of Law, followed by assignments in the Ministries of Water Resources, Energy, Industry, Home Affairs, Irrigation, and Foreign Affairs as the head of the legal section.

While in the legal section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she passed the written examination for Joint Secretary through internal competition in 2012 (2069 B.S.) but was unsuccessful in the interview. She was later promoted to Joint Secretary through open competition in 2013 (2070 B.S.), without utilizing reservation facilities. Gadtoula has always preferred not to use the reservation system.

After becoming a Joint Secretary, her first posting was at the Election Commission, where she served for 20 months from January 2014 (Magh 2070 B.S.) to December 2015 (2072 B.S.). She then spent five years at the Ministry of Law. She was promoted to Secretary in November 2020 (2077 B.S.) and served as Secretary of the Nepal Law Commission for two years. She is currently serving at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.