New Delhi, Dec. 26: Former IIM Lucknow director Devi Singh has been cleared for reappointment to the top job, ending a year of intrigue over the B-school’s leadership.

The department of personnel and training, and the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) have cleared his name. Top government sources in both the department and the human resource development ministry confirmed the move.

The decision follows months of hectic and heated parleys between the PMO and the department on the one hand and the HRD ministry on the other.

Singh himself claimed he had no information about the decision. “As of now, I am merely an ordinary professor at IIM Lucknow,” he told The Telegraph over phone.

But sources said Singh had expressed reservations about accepting an appointment mired in controversy.

The ministry started the process of identifying a successor for Singh, appointed in 2003 by then HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi, last December.

The IIM’s board of governors recommended a second term for Singh in its submission before a search-cum-selection committee headed by J.J. Irani, director of Tata Sons. The committee, in turn, told the HRD ministry that Singh was its preferred candidate for the job.

But the HRD ministry suggested Singh’s name as a second choice, after Dilip Bandopadhyay, then the head of the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, in a move that many within the ministry privately questioned.

Rumours of Bandopadhyay’s alleged proximity to HRD minister Arjun Singh added fuel to the controversy, as the PMO objected to Bandopadhyay’s nomination, sources said.

As Singh ended his tenure on August 24 this year, the impasse between the HRD ministry and the PMO meant the government handed over temporary charge at the institute to Prem Purwar, the senior-most faculty member.

The uncertainty surrounding the appointment of a new director fuelled several rumours and conspiracy theories within the IIM Lucknow faculty and in the industry, which closely follows developments at the IIMs.

“Singh had his detractors. Faculty members in the past have accused him of nepotism and even suggested corruption. There is now an indication that he is sceptical about the appointment because of this sense of opposition,” a senior HRD ministry source said.