T.N. Seshan - wikipedia T.N. Seshan T.N. Seshan 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India In office 12 December 1990 -- 11 December 1996 Prime Minister V.P. Singh Chandra Shekhar P.V. Narasimha Rao Atal Bihari Vajpayee H.D. Deve Gowda Preceded by V.S. Ramadevi Succeeded by M.S. Gill 18th Cabinet Secretary of India In office 27 March 1989 -- 23 December 1989 Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Preceded by B.G. Deshmukh Succeeded by V.C. Pande Personal details Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan ( 1932 - 12 - 15 ) 15 December 1932 ( age 85 ) Palakkad, Madras Presidency, British India ( now in Kerala, India ) Residence Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Alma mater Madras Christian College Harvard University Occupation Indian Administrative Service Awards Ramon Magsaysay award ( in 1996 ) Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan known as T.N. Seshan is a retired 1955 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, best remembered as the man who cleaned up elections in India. He was the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India ( 1990 -- 96 ), who reformed elections by largely ending its malpractices in the country. and redefined the status and visibility of the Election Commission of India. An Indian Administrative Service officer, he earlier served as the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India in 1989. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 1996. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Personal life 3 Career 3.1 Chief Election Commissioner 3.1. 1 Major achievements 4 References 5 External links Early life and education Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan was born on 15 December 1932 in Thirunellai, Palakkad district, Kerala. He completed his schooling from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and intermediate from Government Victoria College, Palakkad. He obtained his graduation in Physics from the Madras Christian College. He worked for three years as demonstrator at the Madras Christian college, when he passed the IAS exam. He then went to study at Harvard University on Edward S. Mason Fellowship where he earned a master 's degree in public administration. ( Class of 1968 ) T.N. Seshan and E. Sreedharan are classmates at BEM High School and Victoria College in Palakkad. Both of them were selected for Engineering in Kakinada ( Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University ) however E. Sreedharan decided to pursue it, while T.N. Seshan decided to join MCC ( Madras Christian College ). Personal life In 1959, while serving as Dindigul sub-collector, Sheshan married Jayalakshmi. She was the daughter of R.S. Krishnan who was the vice chancellor of Kerala University. Jayalakshmi died on 31 March 2018. Career Seshan wanted to join the civil services like his brother TN Lakshminarayanan ( who incidentally was among the toppers in the very first batch of Indian Administrative Service ( IAS ). In 1953, Seshan was under - aged to appear for the IAS. To test his abilities, he sat for the Indian Police Service ( for which the age of appearing, then, was only 20 ) and stood first in India in the 1954 batch. The very next year, he appeared and successfully joined the 1955 batch of IAS, having been placed among the top rankers. An officer of the IAS, he was Secretary of many departments in the Tamil Nadu and the union governments. He was Cabinet Secretary, the senior most position in the Indian civil service hierarchy, and Member, Planning Commission of India, before being appointed the Chief Election Commissioner. He contested for the post of President of India in 1997 and lost to K.R. Narayanan. He is often known for his crisp one - liners, be it during his service to his superiors and ministers or while facing the media. On 17th Oct 2012, The Madras High Court appointed T.N Seshan as an interim administrator to run the Pachaiyappa 's Trust in Chennai Chief Election Commissioner As the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.N. Seshan 's name became synonymous with transparency and efficiency when he managed to stamp his authority on the country 's electoral system by conducting the cleanest elections in living memory. `` Nobody dared to violate the law. '' Poll changes ushered in by him would often pit the political class and their media cronies not just against each other, but also against him, the election watchdog, getting labelled, in turn as - `` Al - Seshan ( Alsatian ) '' so much so, that electoral ' battles ' would be dubbed by them as : `` Seshan versus Nation '' Major achievements Implementation of the law in election process : Instrumental in strict implementation election code of conduct Issuance of Voter IDs for all eligible voters Limit on candidates expenditure in his / her election Progressive and autonomous Election commission machinery. Drafted election officials from states other than the one facing polls. Elimination of several malpractices like : Bribing or intimidating voters Distribution of liquor during elections. Use of official machinery for campaigning. Appealing to voters ' caste or communal feelings. Use of places of worship for campaigns. Use of loudspeakers and high volume music without prior written permission. References Jump up ^ Das, Sanjib Kumar ( 1 May 2014 ). `` The man who cleaned up India 's elections ''. Gulf News. Retrieved 10 August 2016. Jump up ^ Narasimhan, T.E. ( 12 May 2012 ). `` ' The more you kick me... ' ''. Business Standard. Retrieved 9 August 2016. ^ Jump up to : Srivastava, Ritesh K. ( The Observer ) ( 5 March 2012 ). `` Empowering the EC ''. Zee News. Retrieved 19 December 2014. Jump up ^ `` Election Commission 's neutrality : Will Zaidi fit in Seshan 's shoes ? ''. Jump up ^ Anand, R.K. ( 20 June 2012 ). `` Time to ' Seshan ' the EC ''. Suara Sarawak. ( Baru Bian, Malaysia ). Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation http://www.rmaf.org.ph/index.php?task=4&year=1990 Jump up ^ `` Man of Tomorrow ''. The Hindu Newspaper. Jump up ^ Sardesai, Rajdeep ( 5 October 2012 ). `` Will Arvind Kejriwal succeed where TN Seshan failed ? ''. News18. Retrieved 2016 - 08 - 09. Jump up ^ Seshan to take care of Pachaiyappa 's trust http://newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/article1303162.ece Jump up ^ Gilmartin, David ( North Carolina State Univ. ). `` ' One Day 's Sultan ' : T.N. Seshan and the Reform of the Election Commission in the 1990s ''. Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ McGirk, Tim ( 28 April 1996 ). `` India 's scourge of money, muscle and ministers ''. The Independent ( U.K. ). Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ Kaw, M K. `` Seshan the Alsatian ''. GFiles - Inside the Government. Retrieved 11 August 2016. Jump up ^ Shekhar, G.C. ( 7 April 2014 ). `` Autum of Al - Seshan ''. The Telegraph ( Calcutta ). Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ Verma, Nalin ( 1 December 2012 ). `` Minds unite in crisis times ''. The Telegraph ( Calcutta ). Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ Sumit Ganguly ; Rahul Mukherji ( 1 August 2011 ). India Since 1980. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978 - 1 - 139 - 49866 - 1. Retrieved 17 December 2014. Jump up ^ `` CEC T.N. Seshan tightens electoral reform screws to clean up entire election process ''. India Today Portal. 15 December 1994. External links Biography Ramon Magsaysay Award website. G.C. Shekhar. `` Autumn of Al - Seshan ''. The Telegraph. April 7, 2014. Govindan Kutty. `` Seshan : An Intimate Story 1994 '' Chief Election Commissioners of India Sukumar Sen Kalyan Sundaram S.P. Sen Verma Nagendra Singh T. Swaminathan S.L. Shakdhar R.K. Trivedi R.V.S. Peri Sastri V.S. Ramadevi T.N. Seshan M.S. Gill J.M. Lyngdoh T.S. Krishnamurthy B.B. Tandon N. Gopalaswami Navin Chawla S.Y. Quraishi V.S. Sampath H.S. Brahma Nasim Zaidi Achal Kumar Jyoti Om Prakash Rawat Ramon Magsaysay Award winners of India Anshu Gupta Amitabha Chowdhury Aruna Roy Arun Shourie Arvind Kejriwal Baba Amte Banoo Jehangir Coyaji Bezwada Wilson BG Verghese Chandi Prasad Bhatt C.D. Deshmukh Dara Nusserwanji Khurody Ela Bhatt Gour Kishore Ghosh Harish Hande Jockin Arputham James Michael Lyngdoh Jayaprakash Narayan Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Kiran Bedi Kulandei Francis K.V. Subbanna Lakshmi Chand Jain Laxminarayan Ramdas Mabelle Arole Mahasweta Devi Mahesh Chandra Mehta Manibhai Desai Mandakini Amte Mother Teresa M.S. Subbulakshmi M.S. Swaminathan Nileema Mishra Palagummi Sainath Pandurang Shastri Athavale Prakash Amte P.K. Sethi Rajendra Singh Ravi Shankar R.K. Laxman Rajanikant Arole Sanjiv Chaturvedi Satyajit Ray Sombhu Mitra Sandeep Pandey Shantha Sinha T.M. Krishna T.N. Seshan Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel V. Shanta Verghese Kurien Vinoba Bhave List of Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=T._N._Seshan&oldid=840546987 '' Categories : Indian civil servants Indian Administrative Service officers Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Chief Election Commissioners of India Madras Christian College alumni Living people Candidates for President of India 1932 births Politicians from Palakkad Cabinet Secretaries of India Government Victoria College, Palakkad alumni John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni University of Madras alumni 20th - century Indian politicians Talk Contents About Wikipedia Français हिन्दी മലയാളം मराठी தமிழ் Edit links This page was last edited on 10 May 2018, at 16 : 10. About Wikipedia

Question: this retired ias officer has served as the election commissioner of india between 1990 and 1996
Answer: Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan