For both, much is at stake. While the UPSC will cut a sorry figure in the eyes of those whom it had invited for the interviews, the Ministry would not like such a key player in the national broadcaster to be appointed by a board where the I&B Secretary was not even consulted, unlike in previous years.

The Ministry is miffed that it was not even informed of the decision in writing. The first formal meeting on the D-G's interviews between the UPSC and the Ministry was held only on Wednesday, almost a fortnight after the UPSC took itsdecision on January 18. But the UPSC is citing the Prasar Bharati resolution of December 1998 which seeks help for recruitment of employees of Prasar Bharati till the ``setting up of recruitment boards''. The Ministry, however, maintains that according to Section 10 of the Prasar Bharati Act, the board cannot delegate responsibility for recruiting officers above or equal to the rank of joint secretaries (which means D-Gs of All India Radio and DD).

The D-G's appointment has had a convoluted history. When the UPSC conducted interviews for direct recruitment to the post in 1996, it did not find anyone ``suitable''. After S.S. Gill took over as CEO in 1997, he wrote to the UPSC that Prasar Bharati would act as the recruitment board.