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IFS officer Juhi Jalota takes charge as deputy passport officer in Chandigarh
The 2018-batch officer has studied in Jalandhar.
As head of the Chandigarh RPO, Jalota will supervise passport issuance and related services for the Union Territory as well as several districts in Punjab and Haryana. (Image enhanced by Gemini)
Indian Foreign Service officer Juhi Jalota (2018 batch) on Monday assumed charge as Deputy Passport Officer and Head of Office at the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Chandigarh. She succeeds Priyanka Mehtani (2015 batch), who had been heading the office since around 2023.
The appointment is part of the routine rotational postings under the Ministry of External Affairs’ Consular, Passport and Visa Division. As head of the Chandigarh RPO, Jalota will supervise passport issuance and related services for the Union Territory as well as several districts in Punjab and Haryana, a region that witnesses high application volumes because of significant overseas migration.
Passport offices function as the citizen-facing arm of the MEA, handling fresh applications, renewals, police verification processes and grievance redressal. The Chandigarh RPO caters to districts including Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab, and Panchkula, Ambala and Hisar in Haryana.
A 2017 Civil Servant
Around 35 years old, Jalota is originally from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and later settled in Ludhiana after marriage. She is a BTech graduate from DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar, and briefly worked with a multinational firm in Delhi before preparing full-time for the civil services examination.
She secured All India Rank 122 in the Civil Services Examination 2017 on her third attempt, opting for Philosophy as her optional subject. She had initially aspired to join the Indian Police Service but was allotted the Indian Foreign Service.
In her diplomatic career so far, Jalota has served in Madrid as Third Secretary and in Buenos Aires, where she handled consular, cultural and information responsibilities. She later worked at the MEA headquarters in New Delhi as Under Secretary in the South Division, dealing with Malaysia and the Philippines, and also served as a Central Public Information Officer for RTI matters in the division.
Her posting to Chandigarh marks a shift from policy and overseas assignments to a frontline administrative role involving direct public interface. Such domestic tenures in passport offices are considered an integral part of the IFS career structure, offering officers experience in service delivery and regional administration.
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