Ashok Chawla to head Teri; Pachauri goes on leave

The move comes in the wake of an outrage over Pachauri's appointment as Teri's executive vice-chairman

R K Pachauri proceeded on leave from his recently gained position of executive vice-chairman of Teri (The Energy and Resources Institute) and former Competition Commission of India chief Ashok Chawla was appointed the chairman by the governing council.

Chawla replaces an old-time colleague of Pachauri, B V Sreekantan — who was serving as the chairman. Ajay Mathur, who had replaced Pachauri as director-general when the latter was made executive vice-president, was also included in the governing council. The decisions emerged from a meeting of Teri’s governing council in Delhi on Friday.

In the last paragraph of a full-page press release shared after the meeting, Teri said, “R K Pachauri, who had been at the head of the institute since 1982, will be on leave from Teri, Teri governing council, and Teri University till this is reviewed by the governing council, given the sub-judice nature of the matter.”

The ‘sub-judice nature of the matter’ that the press release did not mention explicitly is a sexual harassment case lodged by a woman employee at Teri, who has since resigned, and the consequent multiple court cases and ongoing police investigations. Pachauri had obtained a stay from a local court against the governing council acting upon the internal complaints committee report which had found him guilty of sexual harassment of the complainant employee.

The NGO’s council had met in an emergency mode as a result of the outcry over giving Pachauri a newly carved executive role in the organisation, even as a second complaint of sexual harassment at the work place had emerged recently and many Teri University students had protested against his continuing role at the helm of the educational wing. Pachauri had gone on leave as chancellor of Teri University on Thursday after the protests but continued at Teri till Friday.

The governing council of Teri includes business stalwarts Naina Lal Kidwai and Deepak Parekh. The latter, when contact by Business Standard, refused to comment on the matter. He had participated in the meeting via conference call.

The governing council explained its decision to appoint Pachauri as executive vice-chairman (instead of the post of director-general he earlier held) of Teri in the press release. Teri said it was necessitated by the gap between Ajay Mathur’s appointment in July 2015, and the actual taking over of the position only on February 8, 2016, once the government had accepted his resignation. The press release from Teri read, “Mathur was able to join only on 8th February, 2016, after he was finally relieved by the Government of India. The governing council effected various interim arrangements so as not to destabilise the operations of the Institute.”

Mathur was originally expected to join Teri in October but then it emerged that the governing council had decided not to hand over complete executive control to him by elevating Pachauri to the role of executive vice-chairman. On Friday, the Teri release said, “The process for the replacement of Pachauri as director-general of Teri culminated in the appointment of Ajay Mathur as director-general with full executive powers on July 23, 2015.”

The release did not mention that Mathur’s powers had been subsequently curtailed even before he joined as director-general, by giving Pachauri another executive position and where he was tasked to lead the organisation in setting up new offices internationally as well as within India.

The release also said, “The council also inducted the new director-general, Ajay Mathur, as a member of the council who will operate with full executive powers.”