Kakodkar skips crucial meeting for selecting IIT directors

The chairman of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay’s board of governors, Anil Kakodar, on Sunday skipped a crucial meeting of a selection panel for appointing the directors of three IITs, days after he stirred a controversy by resigning from his post unhappy over the selection process, though he later withdrew it.

The nuclear scientist did not attend the meeting along with three other members of the panel, apparently cut up over the Human Resource Development Ministry’s decision to scrap the selection process for finding the three IIT directors which was held in February, sources said.

The ministry decided to conduct the interviews afresh on Sunday.

Repeated calls and messages to Kakodkar, a member of the earlier selection process, went unanswered while the ministry remained tight-lipped about the new selection of directors. The three shortlisted names have been sent for President’s nod, the sources said.

The three other members of the selection panel who did not attend Sunday’s interview are Lila Poonawala, M S Ananth and H M Nerurkar.

The marathon round of interviews went on for six hours and was attended by 36 candidates.

The nuclear scientist and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission had put in his papers on March 12, but withdrew his resignation after being persuaded by HRD Minister Smriti Irani. His tenure as the board chairman ends in May.

Irani had expressed confidence that Kakodkar would attend the Sunday meeting.

It is understood that 12 candidates were called for an interview by the search panel out of the 37 shortlisted for the three posts of IIT directors, which have been lying vacant for the past three months.