IIT Kharagpur will review the decision to show-cause 85 teachers who had been served notices in late November last year for being signatories to a representation seeking revocation of disciplinary proceedings against four office-bearers of the teachers’ association.

IIT Kharagpur interim director Amit Patra spoke about the “review” after the teachers met him last month, seeking a revocation of the show-cause notices issued on instructions of then director V.K. Tewari.

“I had a meeting with the teachers. The matter will be reviewed,” Patra, who is the director of IIT BHU (Varanasi) and presently officiating as the IIT Kharagpur’s interim director, said.

On November 29, the registrar caused 85 teachers to be charged with signing a mass petition that the IIT authorities construed as teachers “violating” the institute’s rules of conduct.

Although the registrar in a follow-up notice on December 6 stated that “no further action” would be taken against them, the same notice also mentioned that the institute “reserves the legal right in this matter”.

“The notice says the institute reserves the legal right in this matter. This means that some action could be initiated again at any moment. Therefore, we have sought from the interim director that the show-cause notice be scrapped altogether and necessary instructions be issued to the registrar,” said a teacher.

A teacher said they wanted the show-cause notices to be revoked because they could not be accused of signing the mass petition.

What was sent to the registrar was a resolution approved at a meeting of the teachers’ association.

The 85 teachers had endorsed a resolution approved at a meeting of the association stating that show-cause notices against the office-bearers and the general secretary of the association “be withdrawn immediately” and the disciplinary proceedings be “stopped with immediate effect”.

The teachers held protest marches on the campus seeking the withdrawal of the punishment.

“Since the interim director took over on December 31, we presented our case during a meeting last Thursday. The IIT authorities must understand that the office bearers of the association had to write to the Union education ministry over some issues because the previous director was not addressing those issues. As fellow teachers, we just protested the action against them,” said a teacher.

The four office-bearers were show-caused on November 12 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.