President will be Visitor to IIMs with power to appoint, remove directors: Bill introduced in LS proposes

NEW DELHI: The President will be Visitor to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) with powers to audit their functioning, order probes and appoint as well as remove directors, according to a bill introduced in Lok Sabha on Friday to amend the IIM Act of 2017. The bill was introduced amid disruptions by opposition members over the violence in Manipur. According to the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the President of India shall be Visitor of every institute.

"The Visitor may appoint one or more persons to review the work and progress of any institute, to hold enquiries into affairs thereof and to report in such manner as the Visitor may direct. The board may also recommend to the Visitor an enquiry as deemed proper against the institute which has not been functioning in accordance with provisions and objectives of the Act," the bill stated. Under the IIM Act, which came into force in January 2018 and granted the premier B-schools greater autonomy, the board of governors of each institute has 19 members who include just one representative each from the central and state governments. The board nominates its remaining 17 members from among eminent personalities, faculty and alumni.

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The board also appoints the search panels for the appointment of new directors and chairpersons, and later makes the appointments if it agrees with the search panels' recommendations. However, according to the amendment bill, the search-cum-selection panel for the Director's appointment will have a Visitor's nominee. Before the IIM Act was passed, the then human resource development (HRD) ministry (now education ministry) used to appoint the IIMs' directors, chairpersons and board members. The education ministry had last year told the institutes it is working out a new procedure for the formation of the search-cum-selection committees involved in the appointment of chairpersons. It has asked the institutes' boards of governors (BoGs) to extend the tenures of their chairpersons till the procedure has been finalised.

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Several IIM board members had described this as “interference” and raised apprehensions about dilution of autonomy. The concept of Visitor in IIMs had first found a mention in the draft of the present act released by the Centre in 2015. However, IIMs had resisted it saying that it would "put a question mark on their said autonomous powers". It was later removed from the final bill. The President of India is the Visitor of all the central universities and IITs and appoints their Vice Chancellors and Directors.

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Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the bill after the House met following an earlier adjournment over the Manipur issue. When the chair asked whether Manish Tewari wanted to say something on the bill at the introduction stage, the Congress member raised the Manipur issue. Cutting short Tewari's remarks, the chair moved ahead and the bill was introduced by a voice vote amid din. The bill will come up for consideration and passage next week, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the House on Friday while listing out government business for next week.