Delhi HC seeks JNU’s reply on VC power to finalise faculty postings

The plea, filed by five faculty members of JNU, have challenged an amendment which was made to the academic regulation to allow the vice chancellor to unilaterally add names to the panel of experts to the selection committees for faculty appointments.

The petition alleged that the September 18 amendment is “illegal” and without the authority of law.

“The VC has no authority under the law and rules to add any name to the said panel of experts or nominate to the Selection Committee a person not already listed as an expert in the Panel of Experts as approved by the Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC),” the petition, filed through advocate Vrinda Grover, said.

A similar petition by the teachers is already pending before the court which has listed it for final arguments. The plea has alleged that Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar has arrogated himself the power to make additions to the Panel of Experts, from which he would nominate experts to the Selection Committee for the purposes of faculty appointments.

The fresh plea has said that during the pendency of the earlier petition, the varsity has conducted multiple inverview for faculty appointments wherein the vice chancellor invited external members as experts to the selection committee, persons whose names are not in the panel of experts approved by the statutory bodies of the university, in accordance with the governing law and procedure.

“The Vice Chancellor, by seeking to usurp the power to add names beyond the approved list of Panel of Experts, is acting without the authority of law and in direct contravention of the UGC regulations and various provisions of JNU Act its statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations,” it alleged.

It has sought quashing of the September 18 amendment to academic regulation and resolution of 269th meeting of the executive committee.

The petition was filed by faculty members C P Chandrashekar, Bishnupriya Dutt, Jayati Ghosh, Ravi Srivastava and Ranjani Mazumdar.