The academic council of the Indian Statistical Institute said in a resolution adopted at a special meeting on January 20 that it “was not consulted as a stakeholder during the drafting of the ISI Bill, 2025”.
The resolution stated that the council “expresses serious concern over the current draft of the Bill, and urges the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to engage in dialogue and consultation with the Academic Council regarding any modifications to the existing system of academic governance.”
Such consultation was key to achieving the stated objectives of excellence, improved governance, autonomy and accountability, it said.
The council said that ISI already has a “functional, tried-and-tested academic governance structure” that operates in accordance with the ISI Act, 1959, as well as the institute’s Memorandum of Association, regulations and by-laws.
“If the present Bill is implemented as an Act, there may be serious problems in the academic governance of the institute for the foreseeable future,” the resolution said.
The resolution was read out by the dean of studies at a meeting of the ISI council — the institute’s apex body for administrative decision-making — on January 24.
The academic council, comprising senior professors, is the highest decision-making body on academic affairs at ISI. The January 20 meeting was held after a group of faculty members wrote to the dean of studies, flagging that the proposed legislation “divested” the academic council “of most of its powers”.
One professor said the ministry had placed the draft Bill in the public domain without consulting the council. “We are worried because although the Bill states that the academic council will be engaged in initiating courses, it does not specify the empowering authorities that would enable it to do so,” the professor said.
“Instead, the draft proposes an overarching board of governors — loaded with members hand-picked by the ministry — placed above the academic council and empowered to start and withdraw courses. This diminishes the role of the academic council,” an academic council member said.
Former ISI professor and former National Chair of Science Partha P. Majumder said the dilution of the academic council’s authority would open the door to the introduction of courses that lack academic rigour.
“The institute is being primed to introduce courses bordering on pseudoscience in the name of the Indian Knowledge System (IKS),” he said.
“While the IITs have embraced pseudoscience under the garb of IKS, the ISI academic council, as an autonomous body under the society-based structure, has always retained the authority to introduce rational courses. Once that authority is taken away, there will be no stopping such introductions,” Majumder said.
“The council is justified in demanding consultations with the ministry before making any changes to the system of academic governance,” Majumder told Metro.
Calls and text messages to Puja Singh Mondal, additional secretary in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation and the official assigned to oversee ISI, did not receive a response. Mondal attended the ISI council meeting on January 24.
During the meeting, Mondal referred to a “brainstorming session” allegedly held at the ISI Bangalore centre on June 5 last year to discuss the new legislation. However, according to a council member: “An RTI query seeking the minutes of the session, placed before the council meeting, revealed that the ministry had no information on this.”