NAAC chief seeks inquiry into UGC’s move to get additional chairman

In his February 26 letter to the UGC chairman, Patwardhan, who was appointed the NAAC chairman in February 2022, expressed his “intent to resign”. He wrote that he will act only after receiving a response from the Commission.

On March 3, Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe was nominated as the new NAAC chairperson by Kumar using his authority as the president of the NAAC’s general council.

When contacted, Patwardhan told The Sunday Express that the UGC made a new appointment without “informing me”.

The UGC chairman did not respond to questions on the matter.

In his letter to Kumar on Saturday, Patwardhan wrote: “The competent authority has miserably failed to interpret my letter in its proper perspective since my letter was a Letter of Intent and NOT the Letter of Resignation. In doing so, it is also surprising to note that the competent authority has made a nomination of an additional Chairman of EC NAAC without having any legal authority and morality/courtesy to inform me till today. It will be agreed that this action on the part of the competent authority is against the principles of natural justice and also amounts to a blatant violation of the basic service rules in this regard.”

In his February 26 letter, Patwardhan had written that many “essential measures”, which needed priority and implementation, seem to have been taken “very casually”.

He wrote: “Based on my experience, various complaints from the stakeholders, and review committee reports, I had expressed my apprehensions earlier about the possibility of vested interests, malpractices, and nexus among the persons concerned, offering thereby a green corridor by presumably manipulating ICT, DVV and PTV processes leading to the awarding of questionable grades to some HEIs. Mainly due to this, I had also suggested the need for an independent inquiry by appropriate high-level national agencies.”