President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the Education Ministry's proposal to launch an inquiry against Delhi University Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Yogesh Tyagi for administrative lapses, The Indian Express has learnt. The approval comes within a week of an ugly power tussle that played out between Tyagi and Pro-Vice-Chancellor P C Joshi. According to sources, Tyagi's unauthorised absence from the university is among the grounds for initiating inquiry against him. Tyagi has been on leave ever since he was admitted to AIIMS on July 2 under "emergency medical condition". The government had given Joshi charge of V-C on July 17 until he resumed office. According to government sources, Tyagi has not been attending office regularly since January this year. The Indian Express had reported on October 24 that the education ministry had made attempts in the past to build a case for Tyagi's removal. Among the occasions when this was informally discussed was when he did not heed repeated reminders for filling up faculty posts lying vacant for years, and his handling of last year's teachers' protest over reappointment of ad hoc teachers. The government had intervened to resolve the crisis. However, matters came to a head last week when he went head to head with Joshi over appointing a new Registrar. A day later, the government issued a strongly-worded directive snubbing Tyagi, declaring his contentious appointment to the Registrar's post as invalid since it was done during his leave of absence. Interestingly, despite the government's public snub to Tyagi, P C Jha, who was appointed Registrar by the V-C, wrote to the ministry on Friday last week insisting his appointment complied with the rules. The Education Ministry then wrote to the Registrar appointed by Joshi ordering DU to initiate disciplinary action against Jha under the University Act. Jha, however, continued issuing notices as DU registrar. On Tuesday, he issued a notice saying, "It has been observed that a few notifications regarding teaching, legal affairs, transfers and cluster innovation centre (CIC) have been issued on the letterhead of the university on October 24. These notifications are issued in complete disregard of the Delhi University Act 1922, its Statutes and Ordinances, and therefore, null and void." The notifications in question were issued by Vikas Gupta, the Registrar appointed by DU's Executive Council and recognised by the Education Ministry. According to government sources, Joshi will issue a show cause notice to Jha as per the ministry's instructions. Tyagi and Jha did not respond to calls seeking a comment.
