Bengaluru: J.C. Lynn passed away at 9:30pm (Thursday 15th April) at St. Philomena’s Hospital where he had been in the ICU for the past 10 days battling  a COPD exacerbation from which he has been suffering these last few years.  

J.C. Lynn (IAS retd) served a Chief Secretary to the Govt of Karnataka between 1992 and 1994. In a career spanning 34 years, he held several important positions in the State and Central Governments. He had served as Secretary to three Chief Ministers, Veerendra Patil, D. Deveraj Urs and briefly of R. Gundu Rao holding the post for ten years. He also held the posts of Home and Industries Secretaries to the Govt of Karnataka, before being appointed Chairman of Karnataka Road Transport Corporation KSRTC and simultaneously as Chairman of the KSTDC, before being posted to Delhi, where he served in the Departments of Coal and Personnel before being appointed Chairman of the Food Corporation of India in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.

He was recalled to serve as Chief secretary to the Government of Karnataka by Chief Minister Veerappa Moily in 1992 until his retirement from service in December 1994. After his retirement he was appointed as the first Ombudsman of the RBI in Karnataka, a post he held till 1998. J.C. Lynn is widely regarded as an officer of impeccable integrity, who set high standards and was well respected by members of all the Civil Services, especially during his tenure as Establishment Officer in the Ministry of Personnel, Govt of India between 1988 to 1990, where his policies on criteria for selection to key bureaucratic posts became  the norm for promotions and  appointments to top management of PSUs and the selection of personnel on Central deputation.  As KSRTC Chairman between 1981 and 1983 he expanded the Transport network by sanctioning the building of bus stations in remote areas as well as the construction of the Subhas Nagar Bus Terminus opposite City Station. 

As the Secretary to Devaraj Urs in the 1970s he was instrumental in setting up the Somanahalli leper project in association with the Archbishop of Bangalore. This was after the lepers had made a fervent representation before the Chief Minister.  He played an important role in establishing Bangalore on the IT map of India, first as Industries Secretary in 1983-84 and then as Chief Secretary between 1992 to 1994. J.C. Lynn was a proud Bangalorean, who was the first student of St. Joseph’s Boys high school to enter the Civil Services in Independent India in 1960. He had been a brilliant student in school holding an unbroken record of 617 out of 700 in the Senior Cambridge examination of 1952 which remained unchallenged until the school adopted a new examination system.