Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday which proposes to make the President as the Visitor of all IIMs. The Bill proposes to amend the 2017 Act so that the Visitor can nominate the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of IIMs and it empowers the Centre to constitute an interim Board in case of suspension or dissolution of Board of Governors.
At present, the Board selects the Chairperson. Experts feel that the amendments will have impact on the autonomy of IIMs and they will be governed the way Central Universities are governed. The Bill is also to change the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai as the Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai.
In the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, Mr. Pradhan said Section 10 of the present Act would be amended to provide that “the Chairperson of the Board of Governors shall be nominated by the Visitor and to empower the Central government to constitute an interim Board in case of suspension or dissolution of the said Board of Governors.” A new Section, 10A, would be added so that the President shall be the Visitor of every Institute.
Prior approval
Section 16 of the Act will be amended to provide more powers to the Visitor in the appointment of IIM Directors. The Board will now have to take the prior approval of the Visitor to appoint a Director. The Director will be appointed out of the panel of names recommended by a search-cum-selection committee to be constituted by the Board consisting of the Chairperson of the Board, who shall be the Chairperson of the search-cum-selection committee, one member to be nominated by the Visitor and two Members chosen from amongst eminent administrators, industrialists, educationists, scientists, technocrats and management specialists. The Board, with prior approval of the Visitor, may remove the Director and the Visitor can also terminate the Director.
Section 17 of the Act, that gives powers to Board for initiation of inquiry against the Director, has been deleted in the Bill. Section 29 of the present Act on “Coordination Forum of the Institute” will also be amended so that an eminent person to be nominated by the Visitor shall be the Chairperson of the Forum.
Furqan Qamar, Professor of Management at Jamia Millia Islamia, said the Bill was just what many had apprehended when IIMs were brought under the Act to give them degree-granting power and to declare them as institutions of national importance. He said IIMs were opposed to the idea because they feared that this would encroach upon their autonomy. “They yielded when the Bill provided them complete autonomy in all matters, including the appointment of the Directors. Their boards were empowered. Now they have lost all of those things and will now be governed the way the IITs, NITs and the Central Universities are,” Prof. Qamar said.
He said the move was on expected lines because the country’s polity and bureaucracy were “quite uncomfortable” with the idea of autonomy. “Interestingly, more the governments talk about the importance of autonomy in promoting excellence in higher education, less autonomous become the higher educational institutions. This is despite the fact that academic excellence is inversely proportional to the intensity of regulation and control exercised on the institutions,” he added.
