Prof Srinivasa Murthy is IIT Madras acting director

CHENNAI:Professor S Srinivasa Murthy was on Wednesday appointed acting director of theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras), a day after the Madras High Courthad set aside the appointment of incumbent director M S Ananth on technicalgrounds.Murthy is presently professor in the department ofmechanical engineering and is also a senate nominee on the IIT Madras board ofgovernors. He was earlier dean of industrial consultancy and sponsored research(IC&SR) at the institute and is one of senior-most faculty members on thecampus. Earlier in the day, quite a few names were doing the roundsfor taking over the reins of administration as a temporary measure. It is learntthat the names of the dean of students, professor V Idichandy and professor NGanesan, the other senate nominee on the board of governors, were alsoconsidered for the post. Idichandy has prior experiencein administrative matters and had stepped in as acting director whenever Ananthwas out of station or on leave. However, he was reluctant to accept theresponsibility under the present circumstances."We receivedcommunication about Murthy's appointment as acting director in the evening," asenior official at the IIT Madras said.As per the statutes of theIIT Madras Act, a senior faculty is considered for appointment as actingdirector. Professors at the institute believe that once the courtvacation is over, the union HRD ministry could file a review petition seeking tostay the order passed by Justice K Chandru on Tuesday. Therefore, an immediatehunt for a full-time successor for Ananth may not begin, theyfeel.