Is IIM-A an autonomous institution, or an instrumentality of State, Gujarat High court will decide.
Whether the legal status of IIM-A (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad) is of an autonomous institution, a State or an instrumentality of State, will be decided by the Gujarat high court after a former employee of the institute filed a petition challenging her dismissal order by the management. Justice MR Shah of the Gujarat high court has admitted the petition filed by Minakshi Ganeriwala, who earlier worked as an IT manager, and posted the case for final hearing on August 25.
Minakshi Ganeriwala, through her counsel Mukul Sinha, contended that she was appointed as an IT manager of IIM-A by the then director, Bakul Dholakiya, and she had given up her lucrative job in the US to serve the institute. She further stated that, despite having performed her duties satisfactorily, she was illegally dismissed by the present director in complete violation of the principle of natural justice.
The IIM-A counsel, Nandish Chudgar, countered the argument by stating that the petition was not maintainable as the institute was an autonomous institution – it did not fall under the status of ‘State’ and ‘an instrumentality of State’ under Article 12 of the constitution, as held by a division bench of the Gujarat high court in 2002 in a case against IIM-A.
In his counter reply, Sinha argued that the decision of the division bench of the Gujarat high court, which is relied upon by the IIM-A’s advocate, was mainly based upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Chander Mohan Khanna vs. National Council of Educational Research and Training in 1991. However, by a subsequent judgment of a division bench of the supreme court, in the case of Pradeep Kumar Biswas vs. Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in 2002, has specifically held that the decision in Chander Mohan Khanna does not lay down the correct law.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Shah posted the hearing on August 25 and made it clear that, “the question with respect to whether the IIM-A is (an autonomous institution,) a State and/or a State instrumentality within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and the maintainability of the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India against IIM-A, is kept open.”
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