IIT Kharagpur has decided to rescind its earlier decision to show cause and initiate disciplinary proceedings against four office-bearers of the teachers’ association, taken last year during the tenure of the previous director, V.K. Tewari.

An IIT official said the institute’s board of governors — the highest decision-making body of the institute — had decided in its last meeting in July about scrapping the show cause.

The four office-bearers were issued show-cause notices on November 12 over the association’s letter to the ministry on September 20, over alleged lapses in Tewari’s administration.

The board of governors decided not to proceed with the show cause as part of its initiative to improve the relationship between the teachers and the IIT administration, said an IIT official.

The board earlier decided to drop the show-cause proceedings against 86 teachers who had shown solidarity with the four office bearers. Now the board has decided to drop the show-cause proceedings against the office bearers of the association as well, said an IIT official.

The IIT Kharagpur authorities had initiated “disciplinary proceedings” against the four officer-bearers of the teachers’ association because they did not respond to the show-cause notice asking them to substantiate the allegations the group had mentioned in a letter to the Union education ministry.

The show-cause notice was issued against the president, vice-president, general secretary and treasurer of the association.

An IIT official said the disciplinary proceedings were put on hold after the chairman of IIT Kharagpur’s board of governors Tata Steel CEO and MD T.V. Narendran, in early December, had told the teachers’ association that the board takes its role of “supervising the affairs of the institute seriously” and will “diligently” deal with all matters.

Representatives of the association wrote to Narendran on November 27.

“After the new full-term director, Suman Chakraborty, assumed charge in June, he has been keen to improve ties with the teachers. The board, which met last month, agreed to drop the disciplinary proceedings and show cause,” the official said.

“The chairman of the board of governors has provided the way forward towards resolving this via mutual communication between the concerned personnel, and the positive outcome to that end is expected,” Chakraborty told Metro on Wednesday.