In a Win Against JNU Admin, Delhi HC Reinstates One Dean and Four Chairpersons
New Delhi: More than a month after the Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor arbitrarily removed at least seven deans and chairpersons for not complying with the mandatory attendance system in their respective schools and centres for learning, the Delhi high court has reinstated one dean and four chairpersons.
The court has issued a notice to the JNU administration to respond within seven days to its order. The next hearing in the case will take place on May 11. The petitioners have contested the legality of the hastily implemented decision of making attendance mandatory by the 144th of the academic council (AC) which had taken place on December 1, 2017.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared on the behalf of the petitioners, assured the court that the petitioners would follow the rules of the university without prejudice, subject to the final outcome of the case.
Those reinstated are Kavita Singh (School of Arts and Aesthetics), Uday Kumar (Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies), Dhir Sarangi (School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies), Pradip Kumar Datta (School of International Studies) and Sucheta Mahajan (School of Social Sciences).
JNU had been thrown into disarray on March 14 as yet another battle, with the faculty and students on one side and the administration on the other, was launched when the decision to remove the seven faculty members was taken.
At the time, a group of faculty members from JNU alleged that the deans/chairpersons who were removed have been replaced by people who are either close to the administration or belong specifically to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh/Bharatiya Janata Party camp within the university.
The dean of school of arts and aesthetics (SAA), Kavita Singh, who has been quite vocal about the compulsory attendance rule, was replaced by one professor Mazhar Asif, who teaches in the Centre for Persian and Central Asian Studies and has no relation with specialisations of SAA. Asif has been appointed as the acting dean of the school.
Similarly, Centre for English Studies chairperson Udaya Kumar has been replaced by Professor Dhananjay Singh, against whose appointment Professor Kumar had written dissenting letter to the VC, pointing out several procedural violations.
Singh told the Indian Express, “They have replaced me with someone who is outside our School, who must be pliant. This can only be done when no teacher from the School is available to take that position. This is just part of a long list of things the administration is doing, as people who don’t understand education and educational institutions.”
In total, JNU has 13 deans and 38 chairpersons, plus five chairpersons of special centres.
Thus tussle with the administration came at a time when another storm was already brewing on campus when seven women students lodged an FIR against a Professor Atul Johri of the School of Life Sciences, who is seen as an aide of the VC, for allegedly sexually harassing them.
In a statement issued to the media, the students who filed the FIR, said, “The professor often makes sexually-coloured remarks, open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he holds a grudge against her. There is a financial nexus between the professor and the administration. No instrument has been purchased for years, but still crores of rupees have been spent.”
The students also pointed to how the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) was dissolved by the VC and replaced by a nominated body, which, they alleged, comprises only those close to the VC.
Protests against the sexual harassment case and the removal of the deans/chairpersons took an ugly turn on March 23 when clashes erupted between the police and JNU students near INA market when the police tried to stop the “long march” that was headed to Parliament Street. In the ensuing violence, several were injured and many journalists complained of being harassed by the police.
“On a complaint received from the photojournalist who had alleged snatching of her camera, a case was registered and taken up for investigation. The camera has since been traced and the police is contacting the photojournalist to facilitate its restoration,” the police said.
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