IIT Director Cannot Hold Position of Chairman in Case of Vacancy: Government
- IIT Roorkee, IIT Ropar, IIT Indore, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Jodhpur do not have a Chairperson for BoG (Board of Governors).
- The government will give additional charge of the vacant post of chairperson at an IIT to the incumbent chairperson of another IIT.
According to the latest decision of the government, Director an any Indian Institute of Technology cannot assume additional charge as the Chairman of the Institute in case of a vacancy. Recently, the Ministry of Human Resource Development approved the proposal that anyone of the incumbent chairpersons of other IITs will be asked to take the additional charge as the Chairperson until the government fills the vacant post.
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Currently, the following five IITs do not have a Chairperson for their respective BoG (Board of Governors): -
These institutes do not have a full-time Chairman, and the Directors of these institutes have been acting as Chairman. The situation of IIT Jodhpur and IIT Gandhinagar is so critical that the position of the Chairman has been vacant for the past two years.
Professor Ashok Mishra, who was the Chairman of IIT Roorkee until May 2017, wrote to the HRD Ministry pointing the problems in giving director additional charge as chairman. According to Mishra, if the director assumes the charge of the chairperson, there would be ‘conflict of interest’. A long period of vacancy will lead to a typical situation that director takes a decision and approves himself as an acting chairperson.
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Mishra suggested the government to either extend the tenure of existing chairperson or direct anyone from BoG to assume charge as chairperson.
The HRD Ministry has considered Mishra’s views and issued new guidelines. The government will give additional charge of the vacant post of chairperson at an IIT to the incumbent chairperson of another IIT.