Desperate to find a suitable replacement for EK Bharat Bhushan, Director General of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the government is planning to amend the recruitment rules as a one-time relaxation, according to top aviation officials. "Repeated vacancy circulars have not returned any eligible candidate," an official in the know said.

The ministry is now finalising a proposal to amend the recruitment rules, mulling over two options available. The first option (the preferred one) is to relax aviation-related experience criteria for IAS from 12 years to five years, which rules out the incumbent EK Bharat Bhushan (Kerala cadre 1979 batch IAS) from the race for the top post, according to a report by The Indian Express.

Bhushan, appointed in December 2010 for six months, has nearly three years' aviation experience, including as a financial advisor to the ministry. Another IAS officer, who had previously served in the ministry as a joint secretary, and currently on foreign deputation, may become eligible for the job. While Vayalar Ravi, former Civil Aviation Minister had pushed for reducing the aviation-related experience to three years, Ajit Singh is said to have advocated five years.