IIT Kharagpur has decided to scrap its decision to show-cause 86 teachers taken last year during the tenure of the previous director, V.K. Tewari.
Acting director Amit Patra said on Wednesday that the institute’s board of governors — the highest decision-making body of the institute — had decided in its last meeting.
The teachers were show-caused in November 2024 for showing solidarity with four office-bearers of the IIT Kharagpur Teachers’ Association who had written to the Union education ministry against the then director.
“The board reviewed the decision and had it scrapped,” Amit Patra, the director of IIT BHU (Varanasi), who is officiating as the director of IIT Kharagpur since January 1, told Metro.
On November 29, 2024, the show-cause notice accused the teachers of “violating”
the institute’s rules of conduct by signing the mass petition.
“What was sent to the registrar was a resolution approved at a meeting of the teachers’ association,” an IIT teacher said on Wednesday.
Asked whether the disciplinary proceedings against the four teachers’ association office-bearers would be dropped, Patra said: “We are holding discussions with them.”
Disciplinary proceedings were started against the four on November 15 over the association’s letter to the ministry on September 20 alleging nepotism, arbitrary faculty recruitment and other lapses during the tenure of V.K. Tewari.
Gate to reopen
The IIT authorities have also decided to open the campus gate on the Prem Bazar side for pedestrian, which the previous director had closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and then refused to reopen, citing security reasons.
“The pedestrian gate on the Prem Bazar side will be opened now,” said Patra.
The IIT teachers had opposed Tiwari’s decision to erect a wall to permanently block the gate that connects the campus with Prem Bazar and Hijli Co-operative Society.
The teachers had written to the ministry about it.