Sandhu to take oath as LG on March 11

Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor designate Taranjit Singh Sandhu is scheduled to take the oath of office in a ceremony at Lok Niwas on March 11.

Sandhu, an experienced former diplomat, will be administered an oath as the national capital’s 23rd LG by the Delhi High Court chief justice.

The ceremony is scheduled to be held at 1.30 pm on Wednesday, they said.

His predecessor, Vinai Kumar Saxena, has been appointed as the Lt Governor of Ladakh.

Preparations were underway for the oath ceremony at Lok Niwas (formerly Raj Niwas). Saxena is scheduled to take the oath as Ladakh LG on Friday, officials said, adding that he was in the process of moving out.

Earlier in the day, the new LG visited Lok Niwas and met Saxena, they said.

Sandhu, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, was one of the most experienced Indian diplomats on United States affairs. He served in the Indian mission in Washington DC multiple times.

He was India’s ambassador to the United States from February 2020 to January 2024. Previously, he served as the deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Washington from July 2013 to January 2017 and as the first secretary (political) from 1997 to 2000, with the responsibility to liaise with the US Congress.

The 63-year-old former diplomat had also been at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations from July 2005 to February 2009.