Heads of educational institutions resigned on personal reasons: Smriti Irani

NEW DELHI: The resignations of heads of some educational bodies were "entirely on personal reasons", Government today said, and dismissed suggestions they stepped down because of pressure from the HRD Ministry.

Since "the resignation were on personal reasons, no inquiry was called for," HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in Rajya Sabha today in a written reply to a question from member of the House Harivansh whether the resignation of eminent persons such as Anil Kakodkar, R Shevgaonkar was due to pressure from the Ministry to appoint preferred persons.

"Dr Anil Kakodkar, chairperson, BoG, IIT Bombay requested to be relieved from his responsibilities as chairperson but agreed to continue till end of his tenure on May 11, 2015.

"Prof R Shevgaonkar, Director IIT Delhi submitted his resignation due to personal reasons. The Board of Governor (BoG) of IIT Delhi desired that in the larger interest of the institute, Shevgaonkar should continue as Director. Therefore the board endorsed the resignation which was accepted on June 1, 2015," she said.

The resignations of Kakodkar and Shevgaonkar had kicked off a huge controversy in academic circles amid accusations that the Ministry was interfering the academic matters of institutes of higher learning.

Irani said the former director of NCERT Parvin Sinclair had sought "pre-mature repatriation" from her post on "personal grounds".

She was repatriated to her parent office and relieved from NCERT on October 20, 2014.

Unconfirmed report, however, suggest a probe has been ordered against her by the Ministry.

The Minister also talked about the Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad, saying he submitted his resignation on personal ground and demitted office on January 28, 2015.

Vice Chancellor of Assam University also submitted that he was unable to continue in the office because of some personal and family considerations and requested to be relieved and treat the request as letter of resignation, the minister said in her reply.