JNU faculty breathed a sigh of relief today as the Delhi High Court passed an interim order to revoke the (arbitrary) suspension of faculties from different Centres. The court was presiding over a petition jointly filed by Kavita Singh, Dean of School for Arts and Aesthetics, Udaya Kumar, Chairperson of Centre for English studies, B. Sarangi, Chairperson of Centre for French and Francophone Studies, Sucheta Mahajan, Chairperson, Centre for Historical Studies and one more professor from Centre for Political Science. All their suspensions will be revoked and they will be reinstated at their respective positions. The next Court date is on May 11, in which the Court is expected to pass a detailed order.
Commenting on the development, Kavita Singh said, “It is a huge relief granted to us. We welcome this decision of the Court. We were exercising our conscience and didn’t engage in any disruptive activities. We are grateful for the court’s decision and look forward to the next hearing and a detailed order”
Through the petition, the petitioners contested the legality of the decision regarding their suspension, as well as the decision on attendance by the 144th AC meeting held on 1 December 2017.
Earlier, through a shocking order in March, the JNU VC removed at least seven Deans/Chairpersons in a seemingly arbitrary manner for ““not complying with or refusing to implement the mandatory attendance system” in their respective Schools/Centres. Previously, the university said that it planned to set up an enquiry committee to look into the cases which didn’t fulfil the newly introduced mandatory attendance criteria.
The new rule had met with fierce opposition from both students and faculty previously.
The order for expulsion was issued to the chairpersons of the Centre for French and Francophone Studies; Centre for Linguistics; Centre for Historical Studies; Centre for Economic studies & Planning; Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Thought; and the Centre for English Studies. Similar order was also issued to the Dean of the School of Arts & Aesthetics, Kavita Singh on Wednesday. The order signed by the Section Officer (Academic), A D Bahuguna said, “The Executive Council in its 272nd meeting held on March 13 confirmed the decision taken in the 271st (emergency) meeting of the EC on resolution number 08 of the 144th (A) meeting of the Academic Council, held on Dec 1, 2017 regarding compulsory attendance in all regular courses, and authorised the Vice-Chancellor to replace the existing Deans of Schools/Chairpersons of Centres who have not complied with, or refused to, implement the attendance system in the university, with the Acting Deans/Chairpersons.”