The public sector headhunter (PESB) is engaged in a mammoth exercise to fill hundreds of accumulated board-level vacancies as the entire selection process has been disrupted from June 2016 till February 2017. Currently, board-level posts in CPSEs are being advertised every day since the last week of February but PESB is yet to resolve two anomalous situations in their shortlisting norms. For the purpose of sectoral candidates, the sectors corresponding to the cognate group being taken for survey purpose by the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) is different. In fact, the cognate group-wise classification followed by DPE is based on the generic nature of work carried out by CPSEs. It is widely believed that sectors as per 'MoU Task Force' followed by DPE is the correct interpretation for shortlisting of sectoral candidates. Similarly, the lien being maintained by Board level executives even after their joining on immediate absorption is being interpreted by PESB similar to deputation, which is not correct, and such incumbents even after putting in 3-4 years of service within the organization are not treated as the internal candidate. Both these anomalous situations need suitable consideration. The sectoral candidate is one who is an employee of those CPSEs which fall in the same cognate group as per DPE guidelines issued from time to time. The internal candidate is one who is an employee of the same CPSE or its subsidiary and has put in a minimum of two years of continuous service in it immediately preceding the date of vacancy, and who does not hold a lien in any other PSE/Govt. An employee who holds a lien on a post in a CPSE can also be considered as an internal candidate of that enterprise, provided he/she has put in a minimum of two years of continuous service in that enterprise, on the date of acquiring the lien and the period for which he/she is away from the enterprise is not more than 05 years. The anamolous situation arising out of the above rules need much more introspection.