The Center has announced the new rules for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), under which the President of India will now be the ‘visitor’ of all these premier business schools with the power to appoint the chairman of the board of directors and the appointment and dismissal of the directors.
According to the new rules, the ‘Visitor’ will also have the power to “dissolve” the board for inability to perform its duties, for persistent failure to follow the instructions given by him/her, and in the general interest.
The Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Rules, 2023, which were brought to further amend the IIM Rules, 2018, were passed by Parliament in July this year. According to the old IIMs, the new rules dilute the autonomy that these institutes enjoyed until the change was made.
The union ministry of education (MoE) issued a gazette notification in this regard on November 10, specifying the rules in detail.
The President will have the power to appoint the Chairman of the Board of Governors, the main executive body of an IIM. The board has the power to establish search panels to appoint new directors, make policy decisions, approve annual budgets and set compensation.
“If the Visitor is not satisfied with the panel of names recommended by the Board, the Board shall obtain a fresh panel of three names, recommended in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 16 of the Act, through the same search. -cum-selection committee or a new search-cum-selection committee,” the rules say.
Earlier, a recruitment and selection committee consisting of five eminent persons was chosen from administrators, industrialists, educationists, scientists, technocrats and management specialists, to be constituted by the board for this purpose.
“The Visitor may, by decision, dissolve the Board and appoint a person or persons as chairman and members of an interim board, as the case may be, for a period of up to six months, and instruct them to exercise powers and dismissal to provide. functions under the law,” the notification said.
Previously, such a clause for the dissolution of the board did not exist.
The ‘Visitor’ will also have the final say in the appointment of the director of an IIM. There are 21 IIMs across the country.
“The Visitor shall nominate one of the names recommended by the Board and send it to the Board for appointment of the person as Director: Provided that if the Visitor is not satisfied with the names recommended by the Board, he or she shall notify the Board to make new recommendations,” the notice said.
Until the new rules were drawn up, the board was solely responsible for appointing the institute director. The president now has the power to “terminate” the director’s services.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in any of the clauses of this sub-rule, if the Visitor decides that the services of the Director may be terminated or that the Director may be relieved from the services of the Institute, the Board shall be obliged to comply with the decision. of the Visitor,” the notice states.
Under the 2018 rules, only the board had the power to dismiss the director, while two-thirds of the members present cast their votes and more than 50% of the members of the board.
Under the new norms, the educational qualifications of an IIM director are also clearly specified, replacing “distinguished academics with a PhD or equivalent” with “distinguished academics with a first class degree at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels, and with a PhD or equivalent from a renowned institute”.