Appointments of directors to seven IITs and the vice-chancellor to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) will have to wait for the next government as the model code of conduct has kicked in.

The ministry of education has for months been sitting on the recommendations of its search panels to appoint directors for IIT-Goa, Institute of Technology Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU), IIT-Dhanbad, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Bombay and IIT-Jodhpur.

A search-cum-selection panel headed by education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in September 2023 recommended a panel of names for directors of five IITs. The same panel recommended names for two IITs last month.

The minister has to send his preferred choice to the President, the Visitor of the IITs. However, Pradhan has been sitting on the recommendations of his panel.

“Now that the MCC has come into force, no appointment can be made unless the Election Commission of India allows it. The government now has to state why these appointments need to be done on priority. When it had time it did not do the job.
How will it justify its request for appointments after sitting on recommendations of its selection panel for over six months?” said an IIT faculty member.

The institutions are currently headed by senior faculty members who are directors in charge or incumbent directors working on extensions. As the regular director is absent, the institute usually defers major activities such as recruitment and infrastructure creation, multiple IIT faculty members said.

Similarly, the education ministry has been sitting on appointing eight members to the executive council (EC) of the BHU, the top decision-making body of the university, and the VC of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The post of the VC at AMU has been vacant since April 2023 when then VC Tariq Mansoor was nominated by the BJP to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

The AMU court in November 2023 forwarded the names of Naima Khatoon Gulrez, Fiazan Mustafa and M.U. Rabbani to the ministry for sending them to the President as VC options, but it has been learnt that the MoE is
sitting on the file.

This newspaper on Monday emailed higher education secretary Sanjay Murthy, asking the reason behind the delay in these key appointments, but did not get a reply.