The IIM Rohtak Chairperson's Term Gets Extended by the Centre, While Others Remain on Contested Orders

Updated on October 6, 2025 Written By Neetu Kanojia

The IIM Rohtak Chairperson's Term Gets Extended by the Centre, While Others Remain on Contested Orders

The Centre has legally granted the IIM Rohtak chairperson an extension of term with the Visitor's approval, while his peers in a dozen other B-schools retain the positions under an improper executive order.

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J.D. Shroff's chairmanship of IIM Rohtak has been extended till March 2026, according to a letter released by the Ministry of Education in August.

Shroff is the first chairperson to be given an extension of office in writing after the new IIM Act became law in August 2023, according to an IIM official familiar with the situation. The modified Act permits the government to designate chairpersons with the consent of the Visitor, the President of India.

Although they had finished their traditional terms in 2022, chairs of a dozen IIMs, including the Calcutta one are to remain in place under a July 2023 executive order from the MoE's department of higher education.

Prior to the end of their term the MoE sent letters to the IIMs to have their tenure prolonged by a year since it was in the process of constituting a search-and-selection committee to appoint chairpersons.

The IIM Act of 2017 and the amended law of 2023 contain no clause regarding the extension of the tenure of the current chairperson. Most IIMs however adhered to government policy.

In July 2023, the MoE sent a letter to the IIMs requesting them to give the chairpersons a six-month extension or until the selection committee was constituted. The revised law came into effect in August 2023.

A section of IIM academics and administrators has alleged that the delay in formal appointment has led to ad hocism and unwarranted intervention by some existing chairpersons in routine issues like grant of leave.

The government granted Shroff a formal extension to prevent a court case while probing IIM Rohtak director Dheeraj Sharma for malpractice, according to an IIM official.

The government knows that the term extension given to chairpersons in 2023 is a rule-breaking and problematic move. In IIM Rohtak the current director will challenge the continuance of the chairperson if the board of governors, whose chairman leads the group, initiates action against him. To prevent a judicial challenge the government gave a formal extension to the Rohtak chairman the official added.