Government seeks say in IIM chief choice

Abstract

The Centre is seeking a say in the selection of IIM chairpersons four years after enacting a law giving the B-schools autonomy over key appointments, prompting charges of interference and setting up a possible confrontation.

The education ministry has 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.

Four IIMs, however, have in a show of defiance gone ahead and formed their own search-cum-selection committees.

The IIM Act, which came into force in January 2018, and the IIM Rules notified in December the same year empower the BoGs to handle the entire process of chairperson appointment.