Twist in IIM-C turf warfare: Board divests Director of key powers

In a transfer that has implications on managing accountability and duty in a prime Central establishment, the Board of Governors (BoG) on the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, has divested the institute’s director, Anju Seth, of her powers to make appointments and provoke disciplinary motion.
This unprecedented resolution, taken at a gathering Saturday, comes amid a turf warfare between the director and the Board, days after the latter handed a decision towards Seth.
As first reported by The Indian Express on February 27, the Board, in a particular assembly February 20, handed a decision towards her for writing on to the federal government towards Board Chairman Shri Krishna Kulkarni and for her alleged incapacity to collaborate with the college, amongst different expenses.
Earlier this month, Seth wrote to the Ministry of Education (MoE) accusing Kulkarni of infringing on her government powers. She had cited her alleged sidelining in drafting the brand new laws below the IIM Act for instance of that.
At Saturday’s assembly, sources stated, the Board additionally determined to hunt authorized opinion on Seth’s allegation — to establish whether or not the BoG is overstepping its mandate. Sources stated a choice to arrange an inquiry towards the director will hinge on the authorized opinion.
The Board’s February 20 decision alleges that Seth has been unable to prioritise work, meet timelines of motion, foster an “inclusive and professional environment with faculty” and bolster college productiveness by consultative and collaborative means.
It’s not clear if the director was allowed to current her defence earlier than the Board took its resolution. It’s additionally unclear below which provisions of the IIM Act or Rules was the choice taken.
For, the Act supplies for a director’s removing by the Board however not with out an inquiry wherein she has been knowledgeable of the costs towards her and given an inexpensive alternative of being heard. The legislation or the foundations would not have a provision for taking away the director’s powers.
Both Seth and Kulkarni didn’t reply to questions despatched by e mail.
The showdown between Seth and the Board is the newest entrance in a dispute that’s roiled the campus since December when over three-quarters of the institute’s everlasting college wrote to the MoE towards the Director and the Board.
Among the problems flagged by the academics was college scarcity. Sources stated just one new college member had been employed within the final two years regardless of the institute shedding over 10 academics on account of resignation, superannuation and voluntary retirement. Some of the exits, the academics alleged, had been attributable to “harassment”.
The college additionally claimed that — not like at their peer institutes IIM-A and IIM-B — their views on the brand new regulationsRitika Chopra N had been disregarded. The Academic Council, the college claimed, was given solely 5 days to submit options on the draft laws, and their suggestions on centralisation of powers within the Board and Director was not thought of by the Board whereas finalising the laws.

Seth, in an e mail to The Indian Express in January, had dismissed the allegations because the work of “a small group of individuals”, upset along with her efforts to foster a tradition of transparency and accountability.

Seth was appointed as the primary lady head of IIM-Calcutta in November 2018. An alumnus of IIM-Calcutta (1978), she has a doctorate from the University of Michigan (1988). She joined Virginia Tech in 2008 and headed its division of administration from 2008 to 2013. She will full her time period as Director at IIM in a yr.