Suspend graft-accused director or send him on long leave: Centre to IIM Rohtak

The Union ministry of education on Thursday asked the Board of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak to either suspend institute director Dheeraj Sharma or send him on leave till the completion of probe against him over alleged misappropriation of funds. The ministry directive also instructs him to stay away from all the campuses and rented areas of IIM-Rohtak, until further orders.

The Centre had on March 5 ordered a probe into the allegations against Dr Sharma.

In a letter to Jai Dev Shroff, chairman of the board, IIM Rohtak, Sunil Kumar Biswas, deputy secretary to Union government (ministry of education), has directed that the board of IIM, Rohtak, defer all items, barring the convocation and award of degrees, till the inquiry is pending.

“The director, IIM-Rohtak, may be sent on long leave/kept on suspension till completion of inquiry and may be instructed to stay outside all the campuses, rented area of IIM, Rohtak till further orders. The charge of director, IIM Rohtak, may be handed over to some other faculty, who has not been associated with financial matters of the institute till date,” the order reads.

The order further said, “For the 63rd proposed meeting on March 17, it has been found that a proposal has been given for re-nomination of Neeraj Kansal as member of the IIM board. The decision of the board has been cancelled as this has been done in contravention of Section 4(1)(a) of the IIM rules 2018, as amended in November 2023, which mandates that the BoG members nomination committee must have visitor nominee as one of the members of the committee,.”

In March, President Droupadi Murmu, in her capacity as ‘visitor of the institute’ who holds powers in this regard, had launched an inquiry into “misappropriation of public funds’ and given three months’ time to IIM Mumbai director professor Manoj Tiwari to complete the probe and submit a report to the Centre. The centre in February had sought President’s approval for such an inquiry.

Allegations that he received 2nd division in bachelor’s degree

The probe is mainly into the tenure of Sharma, which started in 2017. Sharma is also facing allegations that his bachelor’s degree is in second division, whereas the requirement for the post of director was of first division.

His first term as the IIM-Rohtak director came to an end on February 9, 2022, and in the same year, he got a second term on February 28. In the petition filed in 2019 by one Amitava Chaudhary, his appointment was challenged.

According to the allegations, at the time of appointment, he had concealed the fact that his bachelor’s degree was in the second division, whereas the requirement for the same was of the first division. The government acknowledged the lapse in 2022, and he was issued a show-cause notice, seeking an explanation as to why necessary administrative action should not be taken against him for “deliberately concealing material information” about his academic qualification at the time of his appointment.

Claims of inflating fiscal health of institute

The order, issued on March 5, reads that an inquiry conducted by principal chief controller of accounts, ministry of education, found “serious irregularities and grave misappropriation of public funds at the institute”. These include wrongfully inflating financial health of the institute and using such manipulated figures to pay a huge amount of variable pay (more than ₹1 crore for each year) to the director (Sharma) for the years 2018-19 onwards.

It further says general financial rules-2017 were violated in managing the finances and procurement at the institute and gifting phones and other inducements to unnamed persons. The order also reads that Sharma was the director during the said period and his degree certificate was sought by the ministry repeatedly during his first term in 2017-2022 but was not sent by the institute till the fag end of his tenure.

The inquiry officer had been asked to probe commission and omission of acts in respect to various irregularities, the method of storing and verifying the academic degree certificates and other certificates of director, other faculty members, officials and the procedure followed, and decision makers involved in sending, withholding replies to matters, queries raised by the ministry. The inquiry officer has been asked to point out lapses and suggest remedial measures to avoid repeat of similar situations in future.