Nine months after Punjab Engineering College (PEC) registered a new memorandum of association (MoA) restructuring its governance, the institute continues to function without an executive council and a regular vice-chancellor, the two bodies now vested with its highest administrative and academic decision making powers.
PEC filed the new MoA with the registrar of firms and societies, UT Chandigarh, on October 9, 2025, replacing its earlier board of governors-director model with a vice-chancellor and executive council structure, in line with the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2023. The executive council is defined in the MoA as the institute’s “highest governing body” and “principal executive body,” with powers over faculty recruitment, discipline, budget and framing of rules. Neither the council nor a permanent VC has been appointed since the MoA came into effect.
Under the MoA, both appointments lie with the Chandigarh administration and not with PEC itself. The VC is to be appointed by the chancellor-the UT administrator, from a panel shortlisted by a search-cum-selection committee, while the executive council’s composition includes nominees of the “Sponsoring Body,” a role the MoA assigns to the UT administration.
Palika Arora, director, Technical Education, Chandigarh, said the process for appointing a VC was underway. “We have already sent a panel of senior most people to the ministry for appointment as VC. Waiting for their approval now,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Palika Arora, director, Technical Education, Chandigarh, said the process for appointing a VC was underway. “We have already sent a panel of senior most people to the ministry for appointment as VC. Waiting for their approval now,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}PEC continues to be headed by Rajesh Kumar Bhatia, director (ad-interim), a position he has held since 2024. Officials at the institute said the absence of a constituted executive council has left faculty recruitment stalled, with departments forced to rely on contractual appointments and short-term guest faculty to meet teaching requirements, including in core departments such as mathematics and computer science and engineering. This, officials said, has contributed to a worsening student-teacher ratio, with no long-term academic or infrastructural plans taken up at the institutional level in the council’s absence. Under Section 20(3) of PEC’s own MoA, sudden vacancies in any statutory authority are required to be filled “within a period of six months.” That window lapsed in April this year.
PEC is among the oldest technical institutions in northern India. Established in 1921 in Lahore as Mugalpura Engineering College, it moved after Partition to its present 146 acre campus in Sector 12, Chandigarh, in 1953, when it functioned as a college affiliated to Panjab University (PU). It was granted deemed-to-be-university status in 2003 and was briefly rechristened PEC University of Technology in 2009 before its original name was restored in 2017 as Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University). The campus also houses the Chandigarh College of Architecture.
The institute counts among its alumni astronaut Kalpana Chawla, and is recognised for its programmes in aerospace, civil and mechanical engineering. PEC houses a dedicated cyber security research centre, runs a joint PhD programme with IIT Mandi, and was ranked first among 100 5G use case labs across India. Its academic and administrative processes have often been described as comparable to those of the IITs.