IIT-Kharagpur Faculty Considering Legal Action Over Show-Cause Notices Issued to Professors
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Kolkata, Dec 6 (NationPress) Faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur are considering filing a lawsuit in the Calcutta High Court in response to the authorities' decision to issue show-cause notices to 86 professors, according to sources from the Indian Institute of Technology Teachers’ Association (IITTA).
This development occurs as many individuals from this prestigious institution are participating in a sit-in protest against the show-cause notices and the recent replacement of three departmental heads within the last two days.
Insiders from IITTA have indicated that the sit-in protest may escalate to a hunger strike initiated by some of the protesting faculty members.
The faculty members involved in the protest have requested intervention from the Chairman of the Board of Governors regarding this issue.
The issuance of show-cause notices followed a letter sent by the association to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in September, where faculty members accused the institute's Director, V.K. Tiwari, of favoritism and vindictiveness in the faculty selection process.
In their petition, the faculty members also urged the Union minister to facilitate the appointment of a new Director once Tiwari’s tenure concludes in January of the following year.
The show-cause notices were issued subsequently, along with the replacement of three departmental heads, including Niloy Ganguly from the artificial intelligence (AI) department, Adrijit Goswami from mathematics, and Nihar Ranjan Jana, who chaired the central research facility (life science division) of the institute. All three were among those served with show-cause notices.
In response, the IIT authorities dismissed the faculty's allegations, labeling them as disruptive propaganda, and asserted that the claims made by a segment of the faculty lacked credibility.
