DUTA softens,students to get marks soon

High Court against the teachers’ body. The DUTA has now voluntarily offered to ask teachers to submit the internal assessment marks.

Apart from asking the court to direct DUTA to submit the marks,the university’s petition also sought a permanent injunction against all DUTA activities. The move was made in protest against the university’s hasty plans to implement the semester system. The DU petition had also sought a ban on all forms of protests by teachers.

In the court today,the DU argued only for the submission of internal assessment marks. The court,however,observed the DUTA had only appealed to teachers and not directed them to follow the directions strictly.

“The career of the students would not be affected due to the impasse and a requisite appeal would be issued on Friday,” the DUTA counsel told the court.

The DUTA,in an appeal on March 15,had asked teachers not to submit the internal assessment marks to their respective colleges but to the staff association in their college.

The court reportedly came down heavily on the university for choosing the path of litigation when it had the option of taking disciplinary action against the erring teachers.

The university counsel,however,told the court that with the university employing nearly 9,000 teachers,it would be impossible to take action against them .

The court then instructed Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental to discuss the contentious issue of implementation of the semester system with the teachers. Accordingly,a meeting between the Vice-Chancellor’s team and six DUTA office-bearers was fixed for Friday evening at Pental’s office.

The elected members of DU’s Academic Council met Pental on Tuesday evening after ending their four-day sit-in inside the Council Hall of DU. The meeting that lasted nearly three hours had eventually reached a dead end,with both parties failing to agree on any point.

“Friday’s meeting will be different. The Vice-Chancellor will not have an upper hand,unlike last meeting — he will have to listen to us on Friday,” a teacher said.

The DUTA will insist that minutes of the Friday meeting be recorded.

The DUTA claimed it had come up trumps in the battle. “In directing the V-C to talk to DUTA to resolve the issue,the teachers’ position has been vindicated. Hope he will abide by the court’s decision,” DU’s Executive Council member Rajib Ray said.

The court will hear the matter again on August 20.