New Delhi, March 31: IIM Bangalore director Sushil Vachani, whom minister Smriti Irani had publicly mocked last year for opposing government plans for a larger role in the premier B-schools' affairs, has resigned three months before his tenure expires.

Vachani's resignation comes at a time the government has failed to decide on a request for extending his term that was sent in October-November last year.

In his resignation letter sent to IIM Bangalore chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw a month ago, Vachani said he was leaving for personal reasons. The Union human resource development ministry, headed by Irani, has accepted his resignation, IIM sources said.

They added that tomorrow would be Vachani's last day in office. Vachani, they said, was leaving before his term expired so he could rejoin his former job as professor for strategy and innovation at the Boston University School of Management before the new academic session in the US began next month.

Emails sent by this newspaper to Vachani and Ghanshyam Goel, the information officer attached to Irani's ministry, received no responses.

Irani had made sarcastic comments about Vachani and Ashis Nanda, the IIM Ahmedabad director, last December after they opposed a bill her ministry had prepared.

The bill accorded degree-granting powers to the IIMs but gave the government a say in most matters, including fee structure and expansion, which are now decided solely by the institutes themselves.

"They are foreign citizens, both of them," Irani had said in an interview to NDTV. "The beauty in terms of tolerance of this government is that even a foreign citizen can call our free press, wax eloquent about government and system, tell us how our Parliament should legislate."

Nanda, who taught at Harvard before joining the IIM, and Vachani are US citizens. IIM Ahmedabad chairman A.M. Naik, who was instrumental in appointing Nanda as director, resigned after Irani's scathing comments.

Vachani's departure will add to the leadership crisis faced by the IIMs, three of which are without directors while another two have directors who have completed their terms and are on six-month extensions. ( See chart)

Vachani had joined the IIM in July 2014 after initially expressing reservations about the rule that an IIM director can serve for five years or till he turns 65, whichever is earlier. Vachani turns 65 in June this year.

The retirement age for IIT directors and central university vice-chancellors is 70 years.

Sources said the UPA government had informally assured Vachani of an extension once he turned 65. Mazumdar-Shaw, therefore, sent a request to Irani's ministry late last year seeking a full five-year tenure for Vachani.

The NDA government has granted six-month extensions to the directors of IIM Raipur and IIM Trichy. Irani's ministry forwarded Mazumdar-Shaw's request to the department of personnel and training, which had set the age norms, sources in the department said.

Irani's ministry had last year scrapped search panels the UPA government had set up to recommend directors for IIM Kozhikode and IIM Ranchi.

IIM Bangalore sources said a senior faculty member would take over charge after Vachani leaves.