The Hindu Business Line : IIM-C faculty firm against fee cut; weighing options

THE faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), are firm in their opposition to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry's move to reduce fees.

Prof Asish K. Bhattacharyya, Dean (planning and administration) of IIM-C and the spokesperson of the faculty, told Business Line that the faculty felt that the fee cut was inter-linked with the autonomy of the institute, which is governed by a registered society as an autonomous body and not as a government department.

Prof Bhattacharyya said that one option before the faculty was to have recourse to legal action. "We are weighing all options. The legal recourse is not a preferred one; but we may be forced to take such an action as an important stakeholder of IIM-C," he commented.

"We have also requested Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, Chairman of the governing council, to reconsider his draft resolution on fee reduction. The IIM-C faculty council strongly believed that the Ministry's order on the subject was not a "binding" one on the institute. The admission for the new session at the IIM-C would begin by the end of April or early May.

Mr Deveshwar is scheduled to meet the faculty council on April 16.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court today directed all the six IIMs to submit their views on the issue of fee cut before April 16. The apex court has also fixed the hearing of the public interest litigation on the subject on the same day. IIM-C's response to the Supreme Court directive regarding the fee cut would be finalised early next week, according to institute sources.

Prof Bhattacharyya said: "We are in the process of finding out legal formalities to be gone through if we at all move the court".

Regarding the issue of autonomy, the faculty representative pointed out that the memorandum of association and rules of IIM-C had clearly laid down that "the general superintendence, direction and control of the affairs of society (The IIM-C Society), its income and property shall be vested in governing body of the society, which shall be called board of governors."

The faculty council felt that as the chairman of the board of governors, who was specifically entrusted by it to formulate the resolution, Mr Deveshwar could not "compromise" the autonomy of the board. "The institute's revenue, academic freedom, decisions on the student-teacher ratio and the syllabi could not be part of the government's domain," he observed.

Prof Bhattacharyya also pointed out that the IIM-C faculty council had issued a position paper questioning the Government move on fee reduction and related issue of autonomy more than a month ago which was circulated to the board members.

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