Hours after MSU V-C tells HC he has resigned, govt notification announces his replacement

Even as Shrivastava’s tenure ends on February 8, his lawyer Mrugen Purohit told the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi on Wednesday that he had “tendered his resignation on Tuesday evening to the Additional Chief Secretary”.

During the hearing, Advocate General Trivedi confirmed to the court that the government had received Shrivastava’s resignation and “will accept the same”. However, Trivedi informed the court that the charge had to be handed over to another official and therefore, the final acceptance of the resignation would be done by Thursday.

Meanwhile, according to the notification issued by the Gujarat Education Department, signed by Under Secretary Ankur Kumar Upadhyay.  Patel will be “in-charge V-C, in exercise of the powers conferred by The Gujarat Public Universities Act, 2023”, until the permanent V-C is appointed in February.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by senior professor Satish Pathak from the Department of Education challenging the February 10, 2022 appointment of Shrivastava. On January 3, the state government had informed the HC that a search committee had been constituted for the appointment of V-C, for which 80 applications were received. The state government had also informed the court that the new MSU V-C would be appointed by February 8. Shrivastava’s three-year tenure has been a witness to several controversies and protests. In November 2023, Pathak had moved the HC contending that the appointment of Shrivastava to the post was “illegal” as he did not fulfill the University Grants Commission (UGC) eligibility criteria of 10 years of experience as a professor.

“The main procedural contention was that Shrivastava had only three years and three months of experience as against the required UGC requirement of 10 years,” Pathak told The Indian Express on

Wednesday.

“The  state government has decided to accept his resignation… (it) is indeed a good sign for MSU. The University needs a good administrator and more importantly, a good human being. That should be the priority for the government to decide the next candidate. In the interim for about a month until February 9, the charge should be handed over to a senior professor, who has passion for MSU… Since the resignation has happened, it is likely that the government may also expedite the appointment of a Vice Chancellor,” he added.

Pathak, who has been a two-term senate member, had stated in his complaint before the HC, “It can be seen from the reference letters that three names were finalised by the search committee to appoint the V-C of MSU. Out of these names, the selected candidate does not meet the eligibility criteria set by the UGC regulations in 2018. Despite the clear regulations in place, Professor Shrivastava’s appointment as V-C is a violation of the Regulations…”

‘No evidence in favour’

The PIL stated, “(Shrivastava), who has been appointed as (MSU) Vice Chancellor, has not served in any of the colleges or universities having a national importance. Therefore, there is no evidence in favour… that he has 10 years’ experience in reputed research and/or academic administrative organisation with proof of having demonstrated academic leadership… but it appears that before the committee, only bio-data was submitted and neither any proof nor any documentary evidence was produced or submitted.

“Therefore, it appears that without ascertaining the credentials and the proof of evidence, solely on the bio data submitted by (Shrivastava), the search committee has identified and selected the name of respondent no 6 for the post of Vice Chancellor,” said the PIL.

Pathak had also prayed that the search committee, itself, was “not constituted in consonance with the UGC Act and the Regulations”.

He said in his petition, “(Shrivastava) is neither eligible nor qualified and even not been appointed by the committee constituted in consonance with the Act, and therefore, the appointment is required to be quashed and set aside”.

The petition also submitted evidence from the previous universities, where Shrivastava was appointed to show that he held the post of “assistant professor” even though “has posed himself as Dean and Head of Department”, not meeting the UGC’s eligibility criteria.

Pathak had challenged the submissions made by Shrivastava before the then search committee, putting forth research papers he had authored. The petition had challenged the “integrity and moral” of Shrivastava, stating that the research papers submitted by him to the search committee did not have him as the first author although his six-page bio data had indicated otherwise.

Pathak had also made a reference to the Supreme Court judgment in a civil writ petition challenging the appointment of Professor Shishir Kulkarni as the V-C of Sardar Patel University. Kulkarni was eventually removed from the post in March 2022.

The MSU administration and Shrivastava remained unavailable for comment.