Mumbai varsity’s V-C Rajan Welukar told to stop coming to work

This is the first time in the over 150-year-old university’s history that a V-C has been asked to stay away from office.

“The Chancellor has taken the decision in the light of orders passed by the Bombay High Court from time to time, while hearing the petitions challenging the essential eligibility qualification possessed by Dr Rajan Welukar and considering the fact that the High Court has directed a search committee to reconsider the question of the eligibility of Dr Welukar for the post of V-C,” said an official release from Raj Bhavan. Calls to Welukar went unanswered.

On February 11, the High Court had asked the search committee to give its finding on the issues raised over Welukar’s appointment for the V-C’s post. Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice B P Colabawalla had directed formation of the search committee by the Governor within two weeks.

Prior to Welukar’s appointment, the post of V-C had been lying vacant since September 2009 following the expiry of the term of former V-C Vijay Khole. The first search committee, constituted under the chairmanship of eminent professor Andre Beteille, and subsequently dissolved, had prepared a shortlist of the candidates that did not include Welukar’s name. The process started afresh after a new committee was constituted by the then Governor.

From the applications filed for the second time, five names were shortlisted by the new search committee — Nilima Kshirsagar (former dean of KEM Hospital), Naresh Chandra (the then principal of Birla College, Kalyan), N S Gajbhiye (the then V-C of Dr Harisingh Gour University, Sagar, MP), Alka Gogate (the then professor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences) and Welukar.

One of the criteria for being shortlisted for the V-C’s post of Mumbai University is having a minimum of five research papers published after a PhD degree, in international peer reviewed journals. This was the subject matter of a PIL filed in 2010 by Nitin Deshpande, Vasant Ganu Patil, and another petition filed by A D Sawant, one of the contenders for the post. The CVs of Welukar and of the other shortlisted candidates were obtained through an RTI application filed by a Delhi-based activist in 2010. The academicians alleged that Welukar, who had listed around 12 research publications, had included two which were yet to be published at the time of the V-C selection process and that he was working on the third one.