New Delhi: The human resource development ministry is still sitting on the appointment of nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar as IIT Roorkee chairman, five months after obtaining his consent and then President Pranab Mukherjee's approval.

Kakodkar had in 2015 resigned as chairman of IIT Bombay after a spat with then minister Smriti Irani over the selection of directors for a raft of IITs.

Sources said that once the President gives his approval, the ministry usually takes a day or two to issue the appointment order.

Noted academic Andre Beteille described the development as "highly improper".

"If an (appointment) order approved by the President is being ignored, it is highly improper," Beteille told The Telegraph.

Kakodkar confirmed that the ministry had obtained his consent for the job but declined comment on the delay.

The current ministry, headed by Prakash Javadekar, wanted to bring Kakodkar back as an IIT chairman and had recommended him to the President, the Visitor for all the IITs. Mukherjee gave his approval in the first week of July.

All that remains is to issue the appointment order and send it to the institute and Kakodkar.

Officials said the post had fallen vacant after Ashok Misra's tenure ended earlier this year. Misra also chaired the standing committee of the IIT council, which remains headless.

An IIT chairman chairs the meeting of the institute's board of governors, which takes broad decisions on behalf of the tech school.

Eight other IITs too are functioning without a regular chairperson. These eight are located in Ropar (Punjab), Gandhinagar, Palakkad (Kerala), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Goa, Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Jammu and Dharwad (Karnataka).

On the other hand, G.C. Tripathi, former vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University who was asked to go on leave following a student agitation against him, continues to be the chairman of IIT BHU. His tenure ends in July 2018.

In an interview to NDTV in November 2015, Irani had claimed that Kakodkar had tried to push "his own candidate" for the post of an IIT director.

Kakodkar at the time headed the search-cum-selection panel for directors for the IITs in Patna, Bhubaneswar and Ropar. He had described the allegation as "false".

Misra declined comment on the delay in Kakodkar's latest appointment.

An email sent to the ministry's information officer on Wednesday had evoked no response till Thursday night.