Profile
Kudumba yogam Changanacherry
O.V.KURUVILLA
9
O.C.VARGHESE
Male
Degree (Hons)
Married
Annimma, Thumpaserry
Sons
1 . GEORGE KURUVILLA
2 . JOSEPH KURUVILLA
3 . SEBASTIAN KURUVILLA
4 . DR.THOMAS KURUVILLA

Daughters
1 . DR.ELIZABETH MATHEW
2 . ANITA GEORGE

 During the period 1840 to 1882, by the order of Mandapathumvathukkal Maharaja, Kuruvilla Kochandy of Olassayil family and on his death ,his son  Kochandy Vareeth        were appointed as the  Muthalupidikkaran (Head of Treasury) in the Revenue Department  of Maharaja and served the department with an able administration leaving a          clean image . Following the foot steps of these fore- fathers, OV  Kuruvilla, a talented young person from the next generation with his sincerity, dedication and hard         work reached  top positions in the Revenue department of Govt of Kerala . He became  Commissioner of Income-tax, Govt of India   and rose to the level  of        Chairman,Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT),  and served in the department for 36 years .

 Born as the second son of  Prof. O. C. Varghese and  Aleykutty  on 1 July, 1923. .he had his chooling in St Berchmans High School and passed intermediate from St            Berchmans College, Changanacherry. Thereafter he joined  St. Joseph's College, Trichy and passed Honours from there.

After obtaining his Hons. degree in 1944,he appeared for the Indian Audit and Accounts and allied Services examination conducted by the Federal Public Service Commission. Before the results of the examination were announced he joined the Indian Navy as a Sub-Lieutenant. At the end of World War II he was demobilized from the Navy and was offered the post of an Income tax officer in the central service on the basis of passing the civil services examination. He joined the Income tax department in the year 1946 and served in Bombay, Jamnagar and Rajkot was later promoted as Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax. In this capacity he served in Bombay, Nagpur and Coimbatore. Later in 1965 was promoted as Commissioner of Income-tax. In this post he worked in Bombay, Karnataka and Goa. In 1970 he was again posted in Bombay as Commissioner of Income tax which was considered as the most important post. In 1976 he was made the Member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the top policy making body of the Income Tax Department of India and in 1979 he became   the Chairman of CBDT. CBDT Chairman is the senior-most IRS civil servant who advises the Finance Minister of India. . He continued in this post till  June,1981 when he attained the age of superannuation. . It is worth mentioning that in independent India , he  was the only Christian to occupy the post of Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes. 

There are a number of achievements to Kuruvilla’s credit during his years in Income-tax Department.The search operations which resulted in the discovery and seizure  of about 100 Kgs of gold from a house in Ramgarh, Rajasthan in 1965, the simultaneous raids on offices and residences of many persons connected with the film in Bollywood film industry in 1971 which resulted in the detection of crores of unaccounted income, the active propogation of Voluntary Disclosure Scheme in 1975 which prompted large number number of people to disclose their concealed income,, the successful operation in 1981 in Kashmir to unearth black money which required the secret transportation of a plane-load of officials from Delhi to Srinagar disguised as members of a trade delegation are just a few of his achievements. He was noted for his administrative skills  and for the exercise of his authority without fear or favour.,His reasonableness, fairplay and sense of justice won him the affection of the tax payers as well as members of the department.

After his retirement he agreed to accept directorships in a few joint-stock companies. During and after his service tenure he was associated with many social and cultureal organizations. He was closely involved with the YMCA movement for more than a half century.He was its President on three different occasions. He served as President of the prestigious Delhi Gymkhana Club for two terms. He was the life – time Vice- President of “Udayan”, the widely respected cultural organization of Bombay.For about six years he was the Hon. Treasurer of well-known Campion School of Bombay. 

His marriage with Annimma, daughter of TJ Joseph,Thumpaserry, District and Sessions Judge took place on 12 November 1951.Annimma expired on 4 October 2014.

Kuruvilla, in spite of his poor health, came down to Changanacherry on 14 October 2015 and visited  Edanadu tharavadu, (now-BSNL) where he was born , late OP Philip's (Kunjachen) house and his brother late OV Philip's  (Pothachen) house. During this visit he launched Olassakudumbam website and appreciated this effort and gave his message to family members . He returned to Bombay by Ocober end and very soon his health further deteriorated and expired on 30 January 2016 due to heart failure.

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