New Delhi, Oct. 3: The appointments committee of the cabinet has pulled up the civil aviation ministry for appointing Sushma Chawla as interim managing director of Indian Airlines (IA) when she does not meet the criteria for the job.

Chawla, the senior-most officer in the airline and a deputy managing director, took charge as interim chief five months back after the previous incumbent, Sunil Arora, an IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, completed his tenure.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads the panel, is peeved with the civil aviation ministry for appointing Chawla, who specialises in finance, without taking the panel and its members into confidence.

Sources say the IAS lobby, too, is unhappy with the ministry’s choice. High-profile IAS officers like P.C. Sen have held the post of IA chief in the past.

Chawla is believed to have been chosen as she was a key person in the negotiating team that contracted the prices of the Airbus planes being bought by the airline.

The deal was later reopened and a high-powered group of ministers headed by finance minister P. Chidambaram renegotaiated it in a way that forced Airbus to bring down prices in a partial-barter transaction.

Sources said several letters had been shot off in the past few months by key officials, including the cabinet secretary. All of them insisted that the Public Enterprises Selection Board quickly find a replacement for Arora.