‘Fill all statutory posts at AU within two months’

The court also noted that, after becoming a Central University in 2005, the AU was without regular statutory officials for several years.

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to fill up all vacant statutory posts at Allahabad University (AU) within two months.

A Division Bench of Justices Arun Tandon and Shashi Kant passed the order in this regard on September 9, while hearing a petition filed by Prof Shanker Dayal Dwivedi, currently posted in the Sanskrit department of the AU.

The petitioner had challenged presence of a former Chief Justice of Patna High Court, and a retired Justice of the Allahabad High Court, (Justices R S Dhavan and S R Singh) respectively, in the search committee constituted for recommending the names for the post of AU vice-chancellor. Prof Sudhir Kumar Sopory, V-C of Jawaharlal Nehru University was the third member of the committee, constituted on September 9, 2014.

[related-post]

The petitioner had challenged the presence of the two judges on the ground that, as per the University Grants Commission norms, they did not satisfy the condition of being people of eminence in the field of higher education. The court set aside the challenge saying that the allegations made in the petition were vague.

The court also noted that, after becoming a Central University in 2005, the AU was without regular statutory officials for several years.
The court noted that there was no regular V-C for over a year, no regular registrar for five years, no finance controller for several years and no regular controller of examinations, besides the Institute of Correspondence being headless for the last 10 years.

Directing the authorities concerned at the MHRD to get the posts fulfilled within two months of the order, the court said: “We are aware that the said directions may be in excess of the subject matter of this petition but extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions.”
The court added that these directions were aimed to ensure that the AU regained its past glory.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Loading Taboola...