IIM Rohtak's director ineligible for job; already appointed for second term

The head of IIM-Rohtak, Dheeraj Sharma, who recently got a second five-year time (reappointed on February 28 by the Board of Governors, after his first term ended on Feb 9, 2022), was not eligible for this position, to begin with, the Ministry of Education has admitted in an affidavit to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The Indian Express reported that while the minimum eligible qualification stated that only someone who secured the first division in their undergraduate program could qualify, Sharma “secured a second division”.

While the ministry had earlier tried to dismiss the petition in the High Court challenging Sharma’s “misrepresented educational qualifications” saying that his appointment is “liable to be upheld”, the Indian Express had reported back in September 2021 itself that the director “did not provide his undergraduate degree to the Ministry despite three letters seeking the same.”

The MoE finally received the documents from IIM-Rohtak that included Sharma’s Bachelor’s degree, his Master’s degree, his Doctoral Degree, and a certificate that showed he had “worked as a full-time professor in a reputed institution for seven years” on February 17 this year.

The MoE’s affidavit acknowledged this faulty appointing and stated it will enquire how this ever happened.

An anonymous member of the IIM-Rohtak Board of Governors said, “Yes, the Ministry’s representative objected (to Sharma’s reappointment), but the Board didn’t accept it for two reasons. The first term was cleared by the (union) government and the Board had nothing to do with it (since this was before the IIM Act was passed). Second, the Ministry has been defending his appointment all along (in court) and is only contradicting itself now. This information (about the alleged invalidity of the first appointment) was sprung on the Board last minute.”

The Indian Express quoted RTI activist and petitioner Amitava Chaudhuri as saying, “Truth has finally prevailed and I am happy about it. At the same time, it’s upsetting that it took the government this long to acknowledge that Dheeraj Sharma was not qualified for the job. It’s obvious that his ineligibility was deliberately overlooked by someone in the government and they tried their best to hide this.”