The move is significant with the state board exams barely a month away. He has now been appointed as the Managing Director of the Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation.

According to an official statement, Principal Secretary (Education) Hasmukh Adhia has been asked to hold additional charge of the post of GSHSEB chairman.

Pathak had embarrassed the state government twice. He was embroiled in a dargah demolition incident in the Champaner Gate area of Vadodara in May 2006, when he was the Vadodara Municipal Commissioner.

Following the incident, which triggered communal clashes in the city, the 1992-batch IAS officer was transferred to Gandhinagar and appointed the Chairman of the GSHSEB.

He courted another controversy during his tenure as Board chairman last year, when he announced the Board’s decision to introduce open book examination system in schools across the state.

The decision on the open book exam system had virtually put the Modi government in a quandary, for it was criticised by various organisations of students, parents and even academics.

Pathak drew flak from the government for taking a “hasty” decision and was later compelled to withdraw it.

Modi had dropped a hint at a function in Gandhinagar that “there should be some churning among academics on whether students could be allowed to use text books while taking annual exams in secondary schools”.