Parliament passes bill to empower President with management accountability of IIMs

New Delhi: Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill which seeks to entrust the management accountability of the IIMs with the President, who will be the Visitor to the premier B-schools and have powers to audit their functioning and remove or appoint directors.

The Rajya Sabha cleared the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which aims to strengthen the governance and oversight of the prestigious institutions while preserving their academic autonomy, by a voice vote.

Lok Sabha had cleared the bill on August 4.

Replying to a debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government has no intention to take away the academic accountability from the institute but the bill will only ensure its management accountability.

He noted that the Centre has spent more than Rs 6,000 crore in setting up the IIMs.

According to the bill, which seeks to amend the IIM Act of 2017, the President will be a Visitor to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) with powers to audit their functioning, order probes and appoint as well as remove directors.

Under the IIM Act, which came into force in January 2018 and granted the premier B-schools greater autonomy, the board of governors of each institute has 19 members, including just one representative each from the central and state governments.

The board nominates its remaining 17 members from among eminent personalities, faculty and alumni. The board also appoints the search panels for the appointment of new directors and chairpersons, and later makes the appointments if it agrees with the search panels' recommendations.

According to the amendment bill, the search-cum-selection panel for the director's appointment will have a Visitor's nominee.

With opposition members having staged a walkout form the House, seven members, including Anil Agrawal (BJP), Masthan Rao Beeda (YSRCP), M Thambidurai (AIADMK) and Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP), participated in the discussion on the bill.