IIT-Madras director's appointment under Madras high court's scrutiny

CHENNAI: The validity of then appointment
of the IIT-Madras director, Dr Bhaskar
Ramamurthy, has been challenged in the
Madras high court , where a former IITian
has filed a quo warranto petition. If
allowed by the court, the director could
lose the post.
Justice D Hariparanthaman, before whom
the petition filed by Dr E Muralidharan of
Chennai came up for hearing on Friday,
ordered notices to the director and the
centre, returnable in three weeks.
In his petition, Muralidharan, who argued
the case himself on Friday, said the director
had been appointed without the mandatory
approval of the Appointment Committee of
Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime
Minister . Noting that the President was the
Visitor of all the 15 IITs in the country, he
said each IIT is managed by a 32-member
council. The director is appointed by the
council with prior approval of the Visitor,
the petition said. In this regard, he said that
Clause 15 (3) of the statutes says: "The
council may appoint an eminent person as
director for a period not exceeding five
years with a provision for renewal for
further periods that every such appointment
and terms thereof shall be subject to the
prior approval of the Visitor."
Muralidharan, citing information obtained
through the RTI Act, said human resources
minister Kapil Sibal chaired the screening
committee as well as the selection
committee and the appointment committee.
While the screening committee perused the
applications of candidates, the second
committee made the actual appointment. He
said the minister had unilaterally, and in
violation of laws, taken the decision to
appoint Dr Bjaskar Ramamurthy as director
of IIT-Madras, without the knowledge and
approval of the council. This is a clear
violation of the statute, he said.
Noting that the council meant the entire
council of members and not the chairman
alone, the petition said the process was
tweaked to favour Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy.
Another important anomaly in the
appointment process, according to Dr
Muralidharan, was that though Dr
Ramamurthy had taken charge as IIT-
Madras' director on September 23, 2011; his
appointment was ratified on January 7,
2013. "Minutes of the 46th IIT council
meeting held on January 7, 2013 at Delhi
shows ratification of the appointment of Dr
Ramamurthy as the director of IIT-Madras.
It is interesting to note that the Dr
Ramamurthy, who took charge as director
on September 23, 2011, was ratified only
after more than one year and three months.
More interestingly, Dr Ramamurthy was
also present in the meeting to ratify his
name as director of IIT-Madras," the
petition said.
The petition wanted the high court to issue
a writ of quo warranto to Dr Ramamurthy
asking him to show as to under what
authority he held the post of the director of
IIT-Madras.