Expressing concerns over the inordinate delay of over three years in constituting the General Council of premiere Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-D) by the ruling AAP government, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena through his Secretariat, has asked the Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to ensure reconstitution of the General Council in a time bound manner for smooth functioning of the university. The file for reconstitution of the General Council of IIIT-D, whose three-year expired in March 2019, had been lying with Delhi's Education Minister - first Manish Sisodia and thereafter, Atishi - for unexplained reasons since May 2020.

According to Raj Niwas official, upon complaints received from several quarters about this deliberate inaction on part of the Education Minister, the LG Secretariat withdrew the file from the government invoking Rule 19(5) of the Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR).

"Records on file show that the General Council of IIITD was last constituted vide notification dated 15.03.2016 with three years term, which expired in March 2019. IIIT-D had requested the Department of Training and Technical Education (DTTE) for re-constitution of the General Council in July, 2019 itself. However, the proposal of the Department for approval of the General Council of IIITD was lying pending in the office of Minister Education since 20.05.2020 i.e. more than three years, without any action," they said.

"While disposing of the file, the LG Secretariat issued instructions for directing the administrative department (Department of Training & Technical Education), to process the proposal for constitution of the General Council of IIITD in a time bound manner, in terms of the statutory provisions and the extant law in force, for smooth governance and functioning of the University," official said.

"The LG Secretariat has brought on file that the General Council of IIITD, being a Statutory Authority, is mandated to perform key functions related to the functioning of the Institute viz. developing, planning, monitoring and formulating policies to execute the strategic plan for the Institute, reviewing the broad policies and programmes of the Institute, suggesting measures for the improvement and development of the Institute, considering the annual accounts of the Institute. "Any delay in constitution of such an authority leads to severely affect the governance of a premier Technology Institute like IIITD. The callous attitude of the Government towards the formulation of a statutory body is very unfortunate," they said.

Notably, the LG had also raised concerns over extraordinary delay in reconstitution of General Council of IIIT-D

in its 15th General Council meeting held on November 02, 2023.