Arjun: Appointment trouble

New Delhi, Dec. 26: The human resource development ministry has chosen to ignore the IIT council — the highest decision making body of the IITs — in selecting institute directors, a job legally entrusted to the council.

Government documents accessed by The Telegraph show the HRD ministry had turned down proposals from its own officials to call meetings of the council on more than one occasion over the past two years.

Instead, as chairman of the IIT council, HRD minister Arjun Singh approved the appointments of at least four directors without involving other members, the documents suggest.

The IIT Act of 1961 specifies that the council is the body entrusted with appointing directors.

It does not mention any executive powers of the chairman of the council — specifically, it does not grant the chairman any power to take decisions on behalf of the council.

On Tuesday, Madras High Court had struck down the appointment of IIT Madras director M.S. Ananth. Citing the IIT Act, the judge set aside Ananth’s appointment as it was approved by the ministry and not by the IIT council.

Internal ministry documents, however, reveal that officials had proposed calling meetings of the council at least twice over the past two years.

The proposals cite the fact that the IIT council cannot be ignored under the IIT Act, and suggest writing to all council members to fix an appropriate date and time for a meeting.

The HRD ministry had turned down each proposal.

Instead, Arjun approved the appointments of at least four IIT directors — including Ananth’s reappointment in 2007 — without consulting any council member.

The council consists of the directors and chairmen of the board of governors of the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, heads of scientific bodies and secretaries to ministries.

It also includes three members of Parliament, a representative of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education.

Council members confirmed that they had been ignored by the HRD ministry, though some requested anonymity.

“Ignoring IIT council members in taking decisions pertaining to the institutes is akin to a public sector company working as a proprietary possession of an individual or a group of individuals,” said Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, Biju Janata Dal MP and member of the IIT Council.

The HRD ministry has not bothered to explain why it has not called meetings of the council, said Ananta Nayak, BJP member of Parliament and also a council member.

“There is certainly a hint of wrongdoing in the manner in which the IIT council is being completely ignored,” Nayak said. Milind Deora of the Congress is the third MP in the council.

The head of one of India’s top science research bodies said he felt “useless” being in the council.

“The truth is that the government has reduced the council to a state where it exists only on paper. Our job as the top decision-making body for the IITs has been robbed by the government,” the official said.

The chiefs of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Central Scientific Instrument Organisation and the Prime Minister’s chief scientific adviser, C.N.R. Rao, are among the members.

Based on Arjun’s approval, the HRD ministry had approached the office of the President for sanction to each of the appointments. The President, as visitor to the IITs, is the highest authority on the institutes.

Once the President’s approval was obtained — single-sentence communications merely stating that the visitor had approved the appointment — the ministry approached the chairman of the IIT board of governors.

In each case, the board chairman issued a formal invitation to the “appointed” person to take over as director.