Teachers at IIT Kharagpur said the authorities’ decision to replace the heads of three departments was a “vindictive action and shameful act of the administration”.
The three — Adritji Goswami, Niloy Ganguly and Nihar Ranjan Jana — were among the 85 signatories to a petition seeking the withdrawal of a showcause notice served on four office-bearers of the IIT teachers’ association.
Goswami was the head of the mathematics department, Ganguly headed the department of artificial intelligence and Jana was the chairperson of the central research facility (life science division).
The teachers said in a statement that the petition the three signed was approved at an extraordinary general body meeting of the association on November 27 and they had been “removed without any reason”.
Asked why the three heads have been replaced, a senior IIT official said: “According to rules, an individual cannot be a member of any internal association once he assumes an administrative role for the institute, which is in conflict of interest.”
The four office-bearers of the association were showcaused on November 12 following a letter the association had written to the Union education ministry accusing the institute’s authorities of nepotism and arbitrary faculty recruitment.