A professor of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi raised serious concerns about the institution's alleged lack of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), manipulation of internal processes, and the resulting toxic environment.
He claims that these issues stifle innovation, foster nepotism, and ultimately damage the institute’s reputation.
Prof Vishal Vaibhav is an Assistant Professor at the Optics and Photonics Centre, whose email addressing IIT Delhi Director, Prof Rangan Banerjee, and Dean of Faculty, Professor Krishna Achuta Rao, went viral a couple of months ago (read more here).
Prof Vaibhav, who has been filing Right to Information (RTI) requests for months, alleges that the institute’s failures are systemic.
Sharing these RTI responses on social media, he wrote, “This should be an eye-opener for everyone. One of the reasons for the NEET (UG) saga was the incompetence of the IITs and it's leadership who are on the Board of NTA. So how did we get these incompetent people to be recruited? Check the RTI response as to how performance evaluations are a total scam!”
The RTI documents indeed paint a disturbing picture revealing recurring issues, particularly, IIT Delhi’s inability to produce solid documentation for important processes at the institution.
In response to numerous queries, the institute frequently stated, “No such document is available.” This includes responses to queries about rules and SOPs for assessing faculty teaching activities and gathering student feedback for teaching evaluation.
“The main point of contention is that why are there no SOPs? Teaching assessment action needs to be defined by something, but there is nothing to support it. If there is no standard, if it is ill-defined, it can be weaponised against those with different opinions,” says Prof Vaibhav.
Appraisals, promotions, recruitment
Prof Vaibhav further elaborated on the inconsistencies in appraisals and promotions, highlighting that while central government employees follow the guidelines set by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), IIT Delhi does not adhere to these standards. This deviation creates significant disparities in how faculty members are evaluated and promoted, often leading to unfair treatment.
Prof Vaibhav also raised concerns about the recruitment process, suggesting that the cronyism and power dynamics at play during hiring are foundational to the institution's problems. He observed that newly recruited faculty members are particularly vulnerable to these pressures.
"The time of hiring is crucial — it’s when values can be indoctrinated. If this process is compromised, the entire crony model falls apart. That’s where they catch you, instilling fear so that you toe the line," he remarked. This, according to him, is why there are such glaring discrepancies in how faculty members are treated at the institution. The fear of stepping out of line, established early in one’s career, ensures that the status quo is maintained.
Moreover, the institute relies fairly on committees to resolve internal issues, from faculty disputes to student suicides. However serious questions have been raised about these bodies and their effectiveness.
Prof Vaibhav, who has personally faced the consequences of this culture, alleged that these committees are often superficial and lack genuine authority.
"There’s a pervasive culture of forming committees for everything, but these are mostly frivolous with no set guidelines or rules binding them. For example, lab space allocation is handled by these committees, yet a few of my colleagues have been waiting for lab space for over a decade," he noted.
The professor has also requested for the parliamentary procedures of the Faculty Board at IIT Delhi through RTI, which is the highest policy-making body, but IIT Delhi did not define anything in their response.
Similar concerns, different voice
Another former professor of IIT Delhi, Sonam* (name changed) also raised similar concerns.
“There is no set procedure for who gets lab access. Promotions, holidays, evaluations, and lab access — these are all areas where the rules are vague and inconsistently applied," they revealed.
It is particularly telling that IIT Delhi’s RTI responses also highlight a significant lack of digitisation at the institution.
Prof Vaibhav pointed out the irony in that and stated, “Why are things not digitised? IITs are there to bring innovation to the community but don’t do the same for our institutions.”
He warned that such bureaucratic inefficiencies allow for misuse, centralising control and hindering progress. Illustrating the arbitrary nature of decision-making at IIT Delhi, Prof Vaibhav recalled, “There was an agenda being circulated that concluded with ‘Any other agenda by the permission of the head.’ I insisted they define it, but when the head changed, the new one simply dissolved all of it.”
This, he argues, exemplifies how fluid and unregulated practices at the institute can undermine any semblance of stability or fairness.
Performance evaluation of professors which has been one of the main concerns of Prof Vaibhav.
It was the cause that finally led to him putting his papers—which the administration is allegedly yet to accept. He has repeatedly claimed that the metrics on which he was evaluated were both false and dubious (read more here).
This was echoed by Prof Sonam who also happened to have done his undergraduate degree from IIT Delhi. They shed light on the student evaluation of the teacher's process, describing it as fundamentally flawed.
“As a former BTech student at IIT Delhi, I know how students give ratings without much thought. Student ratings are a hoax — everyone knows it, but they’re conveniently weaponised when needed,” they revealed.
In addition to these administrative shortcomings, Prof Sonam also criticised IIT Delhi for its failure to foster innovation, which he believes is directly contributing to the institute’s decline in global rankings.
“The institute should focus on keeping their assets — their faculty and researchers — happy. They should understand the value these people bring to the institution, but they don’t. This negligence is precisely why we lag so much in global rankings. We’re nowhere near international standards,” they lamented.
Expanding on their critique, they pointed out that this is not just a problem for IIT Delhi, but a reflection of all national institutes.
“Nationally, all our institutes are the same. Look at our industry — it doesn’t meet any global standards. Brazil, a developing nation, competes with Airbus and Boeing, while Germany is renowned for its innovation. Yet India, despite its potential, lags behind due to a pervasive lack of innovation,” they shared.
Rankings and issues that come with it
Both faculty members expressed frustration with the sham of rankings, particularly the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
“NIRF is just to boost our ego. The brand name of IIT Delhi is for the UG students. But the rankings don’t reflect the reality on the ground,” Prof Sonam said.
On a similar note, Prof Vaibhav added, “These rankings, like NIRF and QS Times, assume that standards are upheld, but that’s far from the truth. IIT Delhi doesn’t even provide desk space for PhD students. Nothing is uniform in terms of infrastructure. The metric would make sense if the implicit standards were true.”
The systemic issues at IIT Delhi are not isolated.
Other instances
Similar patterns of dysfunction and corruption can be found in other premier institutions. A particular example is that of Prof Rajeev Kumar, a Computer Science Professor at IIT Kharagpur, who was suspended in 2011 for alleged “misconduct” after exposing irregularities in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) processes.
His efforts to reform the examination process earned him the title of an “unsung hero” by the Supreme Court, yet the institution he served punished him severely. The probe panel of IIT Kharagpur found him guilty of “damaging the reputation of the institute” by raising issues ranging from procurement irregularities to rampant cheating during exams.
Despite a court stay on his compulsory retirement order and reinstatement at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), he again had to be at the receiving end of institutional pushback at the new institute.
"When you fail to empower faculty members and instead, push them into a rat race where they are forced to work mechanically, it creates a toxic environment. Faculty members disengage from students, and other critical academic activities become secondary. The result is an erosion of academic integrity and a decline in the quality of education," said Prof Vaibhav as he concluded.
