The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017, granting full autonomy to the IIMs. The Rajya Sabha had passed the Bill in July.

The legislation restricts the government’s role in the institutes’ functioning and grants them power to award Masters in Business Administration and PhD degrees. It also declares the 20 IIMs Institutions of National Importance under the IIM Act.

According to the bill, there will only be one central and one state government nominee on the IIM Board of Directors. The composition of the board has been changed to include four eminent persons from the field of education, industry, commerce, social service or public service, one nominee from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community and three female members.

Under the new legislation, no board member can serve for more than two terms and its functioning will be reviewed every three years. The government’s power to remove members from the board has also been rescinded.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will audit the accounts of the IIMs and table its reports in Parliament.

“Through this bill, we will remove all interference of the government and bureaucracy in the functioning of the IIMs,” Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said in the Lok Sabha. “The IIMs will themselves decide how to manage and run these premier institutes.”

The Opposition supported the bill.