R K Malhotra, Director (R&D) at Indian Oil Corp (IOC), has been given additional charge as Chairman of the nation’s largest company as appointment of a regular head has been delayed.

R S Butola retired as Chairman of IOC on Saturday but the appointment of his successor B Ashok, who was selected by government head-hunters Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) in October 2013, is yet to be formalised.

“Malhotra has been entrusted additional charge as Chairman, IOC. He continues to head IOC’s Research and Development Division as Director,” the company said in a statement New Delhi.

Ashok, who currently is Executive Director (Retail Sales) at IOC, was cleared by anti corruption watchdogs CVC and CBI and the then Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily had last month moved the file for his appointment to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

After being cleared by the then Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the file was put to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who decided not to sign it and leave the appointment to the next government.

The new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to take a view on appointment of Ashok.

IOC statement said Malhotra has more than 37 years of research experience in the downstream petroleum sector.

Malhotra, a Mechanical Engineer from IIT, BHU and Ph.D. (Energy Studies) from IIT, Delhi, will superannuate by month end and if by then Ashok is not appointed, the additional charge will be given to the next senior most director, AMK Sinha, Director for Business Development.

Sinha will retire by July end and next in line, P K Goyal, Director (Finance), in the following month.