Vijay Valmiki was a resident of Kusumpur Pahari. His wife and three minor children along with the family, and co-workers are in a state of shock.

“This death comes in the context of irregular and delayed wage payments to contract workers which has sometimes spanned months in JNU”, said a statement issued by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA).

“The delays and irregularity have been especially compounded for sanitary workers in JNU who belong to the bottom most layer of the graded social labour hierarchy”, it added.

“This along with the increasing onerous contractualisation and casualisation of essential jobs which are perennial in nature is blatantly illegal”, JNUTA underlined, alleging, *The JNU administration has been committing these illegalies with impunity for years now. This is ironical for an administration that always flaunts itself as the ‘topmost’ university in the country.”

Pointing out that sanitary workers and other contract workers in JNU have been valiantly struggling against such Illegality and injustice, the statement, signed by JNUTA president and secretary Moushumi Basu and Syed Akhtar Husain, said, “Vijay Valmiki had been active in the struggle by his union against these illegal and unethical practices that the JNU administration has routinised, and had made significant contributions to the periodic victory of these struggles.”

Expressing immense grief and anger at the death of Vijay Valmiki, JNUTA said it “stands with his family and co-workers in securing justice for Vijay Valmiki”, even as demanding that the JNU administration should take responsibility for Vijay Valmiki’s institutional murder as the principal employer (as defined in the law) and meet the demands of his family, and co-workers, and those standing by his family to ensure that justice is done to his wife and children.

“JNUTA condemns the illegal and unethical practices of casualisation and contractualisation of jobs that are essential, perennial and permanent”, it said, calling on the JNU administration to immediately stop all violations of law” and “start with paying wages on time and regularly, and also begin the process of reversing the illegal contractualisation and casualisation of all perennial jobs in a time bound manner.”

Courtesy: CounterView

The post Delayed wages, contract labour caused sanitation worker’s death: JNUTA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

D K Lobiyal, President of the JNU Teachers’ Association, said that selective promotions have been handed to the teachers who paid complete obeisance to the administration. “We are seeing that promotions have been denied to our colleagues, whereas some teachers have been given extensions as chairpersons and deans beyond the tenure of a vice-chancellor,” he said.

“Fourteen appointments of deans of different Schools of JNU have taken place since February 2022. Three of them involved the previous occupant of that office being reappointed to the same position, even for serving a third term. In another 10 cases, senior colleagues in their respective schools were bypassed, with the solitary exception being when the dean had to be appointed from outside the School concerned. In other words, rotation by order of seniority has not been followed in a single case,” he added.

Surajit Mazumdar, a professor of economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, said that the situation is so bad that the chairpersons of different schools and centres do not know about the experts coming to interview the teachers for recruitment. He said, “The usual precedent remains that departments would prepare the list of experts and send it to the vice-chancellor, and she would choose certain names. However, we are seeing that experts are added to the list, and there is a complete disregard for the statutes of the university as well as the norms laid out by the University Grants Commission.”

Atul Sood, the former president of JNUTA, added that it appears that the administration has already approved the decisions, and the meetings of bodies like the Academic Council and the Executive Council are called to just report the items. “I was a member of the Executive Council, and it was strange that 27 items, which included the introduction of new courses, finished in half an hour. Former VC Jagadesh Mamidala used to call online meetings and would mute the mic if members wanted to express something. The tradition is going on with the current VC allowing select members to speak in the meetings. All universities have returned to pre-COVID norms for conducting physical meetings; whereas JNU remains the only university where such a practice is going on.

Moushumi Basu, who teaches at the Centre for International Politics, Organisation & Disarmament, said that the teachers have noticed a pattern where the National Testing Agency (NTA) is determining the academic calendar of the university. “We have seen that admissions to masters and PhD would be conducted through NTA. However, there is no compulsion to engage with NTA for entrance exams. We are seeing that semesters would end in a matter of three months. I think it’s cheating our students and nations that we are compelling [students] to take exams without proper studies.”

Another fallout of it remains the reduction in the number of girl students in the university. The teachers emphasised that the percentage of girl students has plunged from 51.4% in 2017-18 to 44.4% in 2021-22. Similarly, the share of research students has decreased from 62.2% in 2016-17 to 46% in 2021-22.

The JNUTA, in a press statement, said that the process of destruction of the University unleashed in 2016 has continued unabated, even after the change of the Vice Chancellor in February 2022. This destruction involves the erosion of the institutional and academic ethos of the University and the undermining of its role as a promoter of social equity – the hallmarks of the University which were integral to establishing it as a premier higher education institution.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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The four faculty members of the South Asian University in New Delhi were suspended, alleging “misconduct” and “inciting” a student’s protest against the administration.  Responding to the accusations, one of the four suspended faculty members requesting anonymity has told the media, “The faculty members were only requesting the university officials to follow a due process and to initiate a dialogic intervention to come up with an amicable solution concerning the students’ protests and their demands.”

“We are facing the wrath of the same arbitrariness we were arguing for, and administration has been using against the students, which is an unstructured process,” he said.

The SAU has been mired in controversy since last September when the students protested against the varsity’s decision to cut the stipend for students pursuing master’s degrees at the institute. Following this, the university expelled five students, prompting an indefinite mass hunger strike by students. One of the students, Ammar Ahmad, collapsed during the hunger strike and later even suffered a cardiac arrest.

Soon after, these four faculty members, including others, wrote a letter to the varsity’s officials saying that “arbitrary actions of the administration” have “sharply worsened the university situation,” which they say the administration never responded to. The months-long protest seeking a rise in stipend ended in December last year as soon as the vacations were announced; however, the administration’s onslaught continued in the the holidays. On December 30,  2022, show cause notices were issued to five faculty members for ‘inciting protests.’

In a recent development, on 16 June, four of those five faculty members received a suspension letter. Sabrangindia has reported on the extensive issues plaguing this prestigious insytitution, today being allowed to decay in an article that may be read here.

Responding to why only four teachers were targeted when there were more than a dozen signatories to the two emails sent to the administration questioning the procedural lapse, the faculty member said, “It is a classic case of nitpicking. It is also about instilling fear in others, indirectly telling them the fate of every sane voice that flags the importance of following due processes and fundamental issues in violating the rules and regulations of the university.”

When asked about being a part of a study circle constituted to discuss pertinent issues – Aijaz Ahmed Study Circle – the teacher also responded, “The allegations are completely baseless, be it supporting the protesting students or being a part of any study circle on the campus.”

He asserted, “Branding Aijaz Ahmed study circle as a ‘Marxist study circle’ is once again to be understood as part of a larger campaign that gains massively from selective usage of Marxism and Marxist ideology. This is simply an efficient way of putting a narrative in place”.

He added Aijaz Ahmed was a world-renowned scholar, and his works might have attracted students to name the study circle after him.

The faculty member remarked, “What the university administration fails to understand is that students are intellectually autonomous and do not need to be spoon-fed by faculty members. They can name their ventures after anyone. Who are we to dictate?”

However, the professor believes in having an inclusive academic environment on the campuses and considers it an important aspect of any educational institution.

He said, “Universities work on certain principles and are spaces that nurture cultural tolerance, so whatever students learn can develop a culture of debating and sense of questioning and differentiating between right and wrong.”

“Suspending the students for merely learning a particular ideology is in any way wrong and baseless,” said a social science faculty member who is now suspended.

What is Aijaz Ahmad Study Circle that led to the suspension of faculty members?

Aijaz Ahmad Study Circle was founded in 2020 by students who identify themselves as followers of Marxism to fill the ‘lack of political space to accommodate and exchange the thoughts of Marxist students’ on the campus.

The study circle is a brainchild of three Marxist students, Apoorva Yarabahally, Sandra Elizabeth Joseph, Sukanya Maitey, and some Ambedkarite students.

The faculty members will remain suspended during the pending investigation, and the university has not provided a time frame for their suspension.

The four faculty members will now challenge the suspension legally as it is the ‘arbitrary move of suspending them.’

They said, “We have sought legal help and will do whatever it takes to ensure that our rightful claims don’t go in vain because we are not wrong. We will follow a due process that we have been advocating for.”

Related:

Crisis in South Asian University (SAU) escalates, first students now academics targeted

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The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) has issued a statement, expressing solidarity with the strike call given by All India Trade Unions.  The JNUTA has stated that it “stands firmly in solidarity with the strike call given by All India Trade Unions on November 26”. The working people of the country have  faced an unprecedented assault on their livelihoods and rights over the last  nine months. It highlighted the “lack of planning and preparation by the government to deal  with the Covid pandemic, and a sudden imposition of 10-week-long  lockdown, resulted in a loss of employment and earnings for a vast number of workers”.

According to JNUTA, rather than provide relief, the government has “used the Covid 19 pandemic to withdraw some of the most fundamental rights enjoyed by  workers and introduced wide-ranging policy shifts in the agricultural sector.” It amplified that almost all the major unions of workers and peasant organisations, have pointed out that these changes have been brought about “at the behest of large corporate houses and will only profit them.” 

Even within the university, the JNUTA put on record that “a large number of support staff such as sanitation and  mess workers, technical assistants and clerical staff members, find themselves working in increasingly precarious conditions with contractual  engagements going on for years without any sign of them being made  permanent.” The three labour Codes approved by the Parliament: the Code on Social Security Bill, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code and the Industrial Relations Code 2020 “will all further increase the power of employers to freely hire and fire  workers as and when they like” stated the teachers union, adding that “the irregular pay and exploitative conditions of  work that have been seen during the pandemic, may worsen in the months ahead for workers.

The statement signed by JNUTA President Milap C Sharma, and all office bearers noted that “during this period, the  government has also done little to support students who are facing  unprecedented difficulties in continuing with their education because  educational institutions have been shut and nothing more than online  teaching, which in a country where availability of electricity, computers  and internet is a luxury enjoyed by a few,” the digital divide said the teachers “ensures  exclusion of many. Instead of providing support to students and teachers  on war-footing, the government has again used the opportunity to wreak  havoc on public education under the garb of the NEP.”

JNUTA called upon all its members to express their support with the striking workers in “whatever way they can” as this “nefarious agenda of the government can only be defeated by joint  struggles of working people.”

Related:

LIVE Updates on All India General Strike and Peasants’ 
Right Wing media working overtime to discredit farmers?
We will stop your march at all cost: Political message to farmers?

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In January this year, Suvarna Salve, a cultural activist associated with the Samta Kala Manch participated in the ‘Occupy Gateway’ protest demanding justice for students who were injured in the attack that took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) the previous day. In February, Salve was arrested along with 30 others, but later let off on bail. However, her troubles didn’t end there.

Now, The Wire reports that the Mumbai police have sought a surety of Rs 50 lakh from the 24-year-old. What’s worse, despite the fact that she had been booked in connection with only one instance, the police have labeled her a “habitual offender”.

According to The Wire report the notice was issued on August 24 and it seeks an explanation as to why Salve a proceeding should not be initiated against her under Section 110 (e) of the CrPC. The notice also requires at least one of two persons to appear as a “surety”, pledging an amount of Rs 50 lakh, ensuring her good behaviour for the next two years. If she fails, the amount or the property would be confiscated by the state.

Image Courtesy: The Wire

It is noteworthy that the Occupy Gateway protest saw over 300 people, mostly students and activists coming together to protest the brutal attack on JNU students. However, the manner in which Salve has been targeted suggests that this is nothing but an intimidation tactic to silence dissenters.

The protesters had been named in two separate FIRs at Colaba and MRA Marg police stations and were booked under sections 141, 143 and 149 (unlawful assembly) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code, along with section 37 of the Bombay Police Act, 1951.

Now, the JNU Teacher’s Association has come out in support of Salve. In a statement released JNUTA said, “The JNUTA expresses its concern at reports that the Mumbai Police has slapped a notice on student and cultural activist Suvarna Salve of the Samata Kala Manch whereby it is seeking surety of a whopping Rs 50 lakhs from her.”

Further expressing gratitude and solidarity JNUTA said, “The JNU community is eternally grateful for the solidarity and support it received from across the country and the world when it was targeted in a systematic orgy of violence that was aided and abetted by the Police, the University Administration and the JNU Security. It therefore is duty bound to raise its voice when one of those who came out in JNU’s support is singled out to be targeted and persecuted in this way in what appears to be an attempt to silence the voice of someone who has been raising her voice against the injustices that remain a feature of India’s social reality.”

The JNUTA has urged “the Maharashtra Government, a Government with which many who had also spoken out against the violence in JNU are associated, to intervene and ensure that this reprehensible action against Suvarna Sule is withdrawn immediately.”

The entire statement may be read here:

Related:

Mumbai comes in to ‘Occupy Gateway’ in solidarity with JNU students
M’trs home minister to review FIR: ‘Free Kashmir’ poster

The post JNUTA stands by Suvarna Salve appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: News Click

Signed by the JNUTA president Atul Sood and secretary Avinash Kumar, the statement read, “The General Body remains steadfastly arraigned against any attempt to impose CCS Rules on the teachers of the university, because they are antithetical to the very idea of a University and are thoroughly unsuited and inapplicable to activities that involve teaching and research.”

Protests in the University at proposed amendments to the Ordinance pertaining to the service conditions and tenure of JNU teachers also forced the JNU Vice-Chancellor to withdraw his plans to impose CCS Rules on October 22, 2018 and publicly declare through a press release on the same day that “no CCS Rules have been incorporated in JNU ordinances.”

Controversial CCS (Conduct) Rules 1964 (amended 2014) pg. 6-8

(1) No Government servant shall be a member of, or be otherwise associated with, any political party or any organisation which takes part in politics nor shall he take part in, subscribing in aid of, or assist in any other manner, any political movement or activity.

 (4) No Government servant shall canvass or otherwise interfere with, or use his influence in connection with or take part in an election to any legislature or local authority:

 (ii) resort to or in any way abet any form of strike or coercion or physical duress in connection with any matter pertaining to his service or the service of any other Government servant.  

 (1) No Government servant shall, except with the previous sanction of the Government, own wholly or in part, or conduct or participate in the editing or management of, any newspaper or other periodical publication or electronic media.

No Government servant shall, in any radio broadcast, telecast through any electronic media or in any document published in his own name or anonymously, pseudonymously or in the name of any other person or in any communication to the press or in any public utterance, make any statement of fact or opinion –

(i) Which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the Central Government or a State Government:

(ii) Which is capable of embarrassing the relations between the Central Government and the Government of any State; or

 (iii) Which is capable of embarrassing the relations between the Central Government and the Government of any foreign State;

Expressing apprehensions about the imposition of the controversial rules, the JNUTA said that imposition of CCS rules in one university will lead to “reverberations in all others and will have a severely adverse impact on higher education in the country through a number of clauses that are inimical to intellectual inquiry. Thus the “JNUTA General Body appeals to teachers associations, unions, civil society and all political parties across the country to stand in solidarity with the JNUTA and the Forty-Eight teachers who have been charge-sheeted.”

It further read, “The GBM would like to point out JNU is an autonomous body created through an Act of Parliament and teachers are not government servants as defined under CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 or CCS (CCA) Rules. Conduct rules framed by the Government for those who have to discharge the specific function of government servants cannot be applied by a University on its teachers. Even CCS Rules are not applicable to all Government servants – for instance the All India Services are governed by other rules. More importantly, through the CCS (Conduct) Rules, government servants (and their family members) are constrained in the exercise of some of the democratic rights guaranteed to all other citizens of the country by the Constitution.The University is not an authority empowered to impose such restraints on anyone, especially the teachers whose specific function requires them to have the very freedom that are constrained by CCS (Conduct) rules. Any reasonable reading of the Code of Professional Ethics for teachers incorporated in the UGC 2018 Regulations and the CCS (Conduct) Rules would make it clear that the two are fundamentally incompatible with each other. The ‘silences’ in UGC Regulations or in the JNU Act and Statutes therefore do not constitute gaps that can be used as a pretext for invoking CCS rules.”

Condemning the imposition of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, the JNUTA statement read, “The JNU Administration’s premise that it has jurisdiction to declare all protests and difference of opinion itself as unlawful in JNU is itself illegal, infringes as it does on teachers’ rights Constitutional rights and the statutory framework of the University. Drawing confidence from these overarching guarantees, the teachers of JNU shall neither be intimidated nor silenced by the threats of the administration. Outlawing protest does not end protest, and only imbues it with another motivation, namely, the defense of the democratic right to protest.”

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1. Condemn Discrimination & Humiliation of Asst Prof Rosina Nasir: JNUTA
2. Delhi HC rules in JNUTA’s favour over faculty appointments
3. Release Report on Communal Remarks: Delhi Minorities Commission to JNU

The post Targeting 48 Teachers under CCS Rules anti-Constitutional: JNUTA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) has condemned this targeted discrimination, humiliation and exploitation of Dr. Nasir and has welcomed the DMC’s interim order. JNUTA, in a letter dated July 25, signed by the president Atul Sood and secretary Avinash Kumar, stated that “The General Body of the JNUTA is deeply anguished by the fact that a valued and respected JNU colleague, Dr Rosina Nasir has been compelled to approach the Delhi Minorities Commission with a complaint of targeted discrimination and harassment based on her religious identity against the JNU VC and his administration. JNUTA welcomes the interim order and stands in support of Dr. Nasir’s rights as an employee and a citizen of a secular nation, and strongly condemns all the actions, comments, acts of negligence, omission and commission that have subjected Dr. Nasir to indignity, humiliation, harassment, and insecurity.”

Expressing disapproval of the gradual and systematic erosion of the teaching and learning environment in the university by the JNU VC and his administration, JNUTA has stated that attempts are being made to dismantle all institutional norms and mechanisms to ensure equality and justice for people from the marginalized communities. The letter reads, “In this atmosphere of officially sponsored decay, colleagues like Dr. Nasir are rendered triply vulnerable and defenseless. The treatment of Dr. Rosina Nasir, and her former colleague Dr. Kaustav Bannerji at CSSEIP represents the most reprehensible of treatments of employees by the current JNU administration.”

Dr. Nasir, Dr. Bannerji as well as the office staff of the Centre, were not paid their salaries for over several months, until they sought the intervention of the Delhi High Court in November 2018 and their salaries were released only when they won the case. Today, despite the fact that the UGC programme has been extended to March 2020, Dr. Nasir has been once again forced in the situation up to May 2019 — one of no salary and threats of eviction from the house inside the university campus.

JNUTA has also thrown light on the increasing gender discrimination along with the fostering of hate speech by the current university administration. It has further stated that “We have also seen that the JNU Administration has also repeatedly stonewalled any attempts by external agencies like the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, and National Commission for Minorities to address grievances of faculty expressed to it on earlier occasions. Not one official statement assuring an institutional abhorrence to the spread of hatred on the basis of faith, ethnicity or caste has been issued by the University Administration in the wake of a long succession of incidents. The interim order of the Delhi Minorities Commission is extremely reassuring in this context.”

Dr. Nasir in her letter to the DMC stated that “I was denied the key to access the class-cum-committee room by the Centre Chairperson Prof. Chinna Rao, services like telephone, official internet connection, official email id, and my webpage profile were declined and blocked. I was not allowed to teach students and students were discouraged to get enrolled in my offered course. It is humiliating.” She adds that she is being driven to suicide because of this “isolation, exclusion, and creation of an unfamiliar and hostile environment”.

The DMC has asked the registrar to file a written reply to the allegations by August 1, 2019 failing which a case will be registered against the VC and the chairperson of CSSEIP. The chairperson of the DMC, Zafarul-Islam Khan, has also ordered the JNU administration to “stop any harassment of the complainant, release her arrears by July 26 and regularise her future salary payment.” He also restrained the administration from withdrawing her housing facility in the campus and ordered the station house officer of the Vasant Kunj police station to refrain from offering any police support to evict the complainant from her living quarters.

Condemning the earlier inaction of the university administration on Dr. Nasir’s complaints, JNUTA letter states “The General Body demands full compliance by the University Administration with the terms of the interim order issued by the Delhi Minorities Commission. Dr. Nasir must be allowed to perform her duties as a teacher with full dignity—all the facilities needed for a teacher to function in the university be restored to Dr Rosina Nasir, the illegal bar on her attending the faculty meeting be lifted immediately, and her salary be paid on time. Further, she and her family must be guaranteed the security of campus housing, and her rights and dignity as a human being must be protected above all.”

Related Articles:

1. Release Report on Communal Remarks: Delhi Minorities Commission to JNU
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3. Two JNU profs barred from uni’s executive council meeting, JNUTA reacts

The post Condemn Discrimination & Humiliation of Asst Prof Rosina Nasir: JNUTA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court ruled in the favour of Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) saying that new faculty appointments must be routed through the Academic Council and Executive Council. the JNUTA in a statement said that it makes it very clear to the JNU Vice-Chancellor that there must be full implementation of the order.
 
JNUTA said the integrity of the faculty recruitment process in JNU’s has been hugely compromised by the manifold illegalities committed by the VC and that JNU teachers have been relentless in their opposition. “This order of the High Court has put the indelible stamp of justice on our efforts. But in the face of willful errancy by a rogue administration, including defiance of court orders, the need of the hour is for all teachers to stand in defence of the JNU Act more than ever before,” the JNUTA said.
 
JNUTA said that the Academic Council must be allowed to discuss names of the experts in a manner accessible to its entire statutorily-defined membership. “Members must be allowed full opportunity to discuss, reject, or approve any such name. Such an AC meeting must be scheduled and conducted in full accordance with the JNU Act and Regulation M1 and not before schools and centres have had adequate opportunity to express a view on the additions to their database of experts,” the JNUTA said.
 
It added that centres and schools must be mandatorily informed about the names that have been added to the panel of experts they had recommended to the 141st Academic Council so that the centres can have a comprehensive discussion about the experts before taking these names to the Academic Council for approval.
 
The teachers, in their statement, reminded the VC that “no selection committees can be constituted that include experts added to the panels by the VC without AC approval,” the JNUTA said.
 
As regards appointments already made through an illegal procedure, the JNUTA said it is extremely unfortunate that the university administration did not officially inform the selected candidates about the ongoing legal proceedings challenging the procedure of their appointments.
 
JNUTA has had to seek Delhi HC’s intervention time and again to protect the sanctity of the education system at JNU. In January this year, The Delhi high court stayed the mandatory marking of attendance for teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as decided by the academic and the executive council in July 2018. The court stated that action against teachers for irregular attendance can be taken in accordance with laid down rules.
 
Not just mandatory attendance JNUTA has also been fighting for the VC’s removal.
 
50 members of Parliament submitted two memorandums to the HRD Minister Mr. Prakash Javadekar from Lok Sabha (45 MPs) and Rajya Sabha (5 MPs) expressing anguish over the alleged destruction of the university under the Vice-Chancellorship of Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar and sought immediate action. The MPs demanded the removal of the JNU VC over his policies that have been severely detrimental to the university.
 
In 2018, JNUTA spoke against the unjustified and sudden termination of two sanitation workers and said that it was unacceptable.
 
One of the sanitation workers who was let go was Urmila, the President of All India General Kamgaar Union. Kamgaar Union was fighting and defending the rights of the workers in JNU.
 
“Rather than reversing the trend towards contractualization, the administration is now punishing those who are fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable workforce in JNU,” Atul Sood, President and Avinash Kumar, Secretary, JNUTA, had said in a statement.
 
The fears students had expressed about having a body like an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in JNU had come true in December, 2018. In an extraordinarily harsh move, the ICC recommended punitive action against a complainant of sexual harassment. The Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) called the recommended punitive actions as “extraordinarily harsh” and expressed fears that such action may threaten the work around gender justice on the campus.
 
GSCASH was replaced by the ICC in its 269th Executive Council meeting held on September 18 2017 and ICC, which was supposed to have members nominated by the administration, was formed.
 
Students had expressed fears about the ICC not being a body selected by students and faculty and hence its decisions could turn undemocratic and may not entirely serve the purpose of gender justice.
 
Sabrang India had earlier reported that the UGC (University Grants Commission) had imposed Central Civil Services (CCS) conduct rules, 1964, on Jawaharlal Nehru University in September amid discontent and criticism from JNU teachers.
 
“A university produces new knowledge and teaches it. But to do so, it needs independence of thinking and the freedom to dissent and act on that dissent. The CCS rules will remove these freedoms,” JNUTA had said in a statement.
 
The UGC has been trying to dissolve the Delhi University’s autonomy by bringing Exams, Teaching, Learning and Evaluation under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA.)
 
This being done at the behest of MHRD and the ESMA Act was passed by the Modi govt.
 
The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has promised to resist this attack on their democratic rights.
 
Students and teachers from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) marched from the JNU campus to Parliament in Delhi in March, 2018, in a move that the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) and JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) labelled the ‘Long March’. The teachers have spoken out against the institution’s current vice-chancellor, Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar, whom they accuse of trying to “wreck and ruin” JNU “with the help of the media and the political establishment”. The teachers said that “the VC has presided over a massive seat cut in JNU, depriving our ordinary poor and hardworking students of the opportunity to come and study at an institution like JNU.”
 
In a report by Nivedita Menon on Sabrang India, she listed all the things that the VC has done since his taking over in January 2016:
 

• openly flouted every statute and regulation of the university
• shut down admissions almost entirely for the 2017 academic year
• violated the law of the land, that is, constitutional provision for reservations
• failed to implement JNU’s Deprivation Point system that attempts to bring about representation for students from a diversity of class, regional and caste backgrounds
• shut down the country’s oldest functioning Committee on Sexual Harassment (GSCASH)
• brazenly cooked up and manipulated Minutes of meeting after meeting of the Academic Council and
• treated faculty and students of JNU as his enemies to be defeated by the naked use of authoritarian power

He has lost all moral authority to continue as the Vice Chancellor of a university that has consistently been ranked highly by reports of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council – see here  and here, as well as by reports of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), carried out by the government of India in 2017 and 2016.  (All this before this VC taking over, and without compulsory attendance.)
 
Full text of JNUTA’s statement:
 
The JNUTA welcomes the order of the Honourable High Court of Delhi (attached) on the interim application (CM No.17195/2019) filed in the ongoing challenge to the new faculty appointments procedure created by the Vice-Chancellor. By amending regulation M 18, the VC had delegated to himself the power to add names to the panel of experts and merely report these to the Executive Council. The JNUTA is gratified to report that in its interim order, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court has upheld the teachers’ viewpoint (through their counsel Mr. Akhil Sibal and Mr. Abhik Chimni) and the JNUTA stand that the panel of experts has to be approved by the Academic Council. The Vice Chancellor thus far needs the Academic Council “recommendation” (at para 16) and “approval” (at para 12) and it is only thereafter that the panel could operate for affecting selections to faculty positions. Without this procedure being followed, no valid panel of experts can be created. M-18 therefore cannot delegate the power of Academic Council to the Executive Council and then further to the Vice-Chancellor.
 
With reference to JNU’s argument that the Academic Council had no jurisdiction over faculty selection, the Court in its order found it “surprising that the JNU is seeking to argue contrary to its own statutes” (at para 8). This observation of the Court and the interim order are testimony to the fact that the JNU Administration and the public resources at its command are being used, not to represent the interests of the university or of its teachers and students, but solely the lawless JNU VC, M. Jagadesh Kumar. The law officer of the university, the JNU Registrar, is also complicit in this process and both must be held accountable for this. While expressing gratitude to the DHC rescuing the JNU Act and Statutes from the depredations of its administration, the JNUTA resolves not to rest until official responsibility is fixed for this and several other instances of failure to uphold the JNU Act and Statutes.
 
The Court order clearly states that “the panel, including the names added by the VC, if any, would have to be recommended by the Academic Council and, thereafter put up to the Executive Council for approval, and it is only thereafter that the panel could operate for effecting selections to faculty positions” [at para 16(ii)]. The JNUTA makes it very clear to the JNU VC that there must be full implementation of the order of the Hon. High Court of Delhi. This means that:
 
– No Selection Committees can be constituted which include experts added to the panels by the VC without AC approval.
 
– As regards appointments already made through an illegal procedure, the JNUTA notes that it is extremely unfortunate that the University Administration did not officially inform the selected candidates about ongoing legal proceedings challenging the procedure of their appointments. It must at least do that now as the date for the final disposal of petitions challenging the selection committees held in violation of the JNU Act is 13 August 2019.
 
– Centres and Schools must be mandatorily informed of the names that have been added to the panel of experts they had recommended to the 141st Academic Council so that Centre’s can have a comprehensive discussion about the experts before taking these names to the Academic Council for approval.
 
– The Academic Council must be allowed to discuss names of the experts in a manner accessible to its entire statutorily-defined membership. Members must be allowed full opportunity to discuss, reject, or approve any such name. Such an AC meeting must be scheduled and conducted in full accordance with the JNU Act and Regulation M1 and not before Schools and Centres have had adequate opportunity to express a view on the additions to their database of experts.
 
The integrity of the faculty recruitment process in JNU’s has been hugely compromised by the manifold illegalities committed by the Vice chancellor Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar. JNU teachers have been relentless in their opposition, and this order of the High Court has put the indelible stamp of justice on their efforts. But in the face of willful errancy by a rogue administration, including defiance of court orders, the need of the hour is for all teachers to stand in defence of the JNU Act more than ever before.
 
President Secretary Atul Sood, Avinash Kumar.
 

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The JNU Teachers’ Association accused the varsity’s administration of not inviting two executive council members to the emergent meeting of the decision-making body convened on Wednesday.
 
Sources in the administration said an inquiry was ordered in the last executive council meeting against the two professors and that is why they were not invited.
 
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association or JNUTA said professors Sachidanand Sinha and DK Lobiyal were not invited to the executive council meeting.
 
The JNUTA had written a letter in this regard to the administration on March 19.
 
The decision to debar statutory members from meetings of these bodies is a gross violation of the statutory provisions, the JNUTA said.
 
Sources in the administration said the two professors had participated in protest meetings of the JNUTA outside the administration building, which is a forbidden area for protests.
 
Sources said an inquiry was ordered against them in the last meeting in February and till the conclusion of the inquiry they are barred from attending meetings.
 
JNUTA’s statement:
 
The JNUTA condemns in the strongest terms the illegal action of the University Administration in not inviting Prof. Sachidanand Sinha and Prof. D.K. Lobiyal to the 279th (Emergency) Meeting of the Executive Council scheduled today (April 3, 2019, at 11.00 AM).
 
As has been pointed out earlier in the JNUTA letter to the Vice-Chancellor dated March 19, 2019, “membership of teachers to these statutory bodies is determined on the basis of the University Statutes. The Administration or the EC has no power to debar faculty members.” The decision to debar statutory members from meetings of these bodies represents a gross violation of the statutory provisions. Such illegal actions only expose the hypocrisy of the University Administration and prove beyond doubt that for it ‘rules’ have a solitary purpose – serving as instruments of harassment, victimization and stifling of dissent. Indeed, it is rather ironical that the 279^th (Emergency) Meeting is taking place in a background where the University Administration has been in recent times pulled up by the Hon’ble High Court on several occasions for failing to comply with the court orders.
 
The recent advertisement put out by the University Administration for Assistant Professors positions also demonstrates the utter disdain the Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar led Administration has for the Act, Statutes and Ordinances of JNU and for the laws of the land. As has been pointed out by the statement issued by elected teachers’ representatives to JNU EC (dated April 2, 2019), officials of JNU have within the four walls of the Administration conjured up a recruitment policy that has absolutely no sanctity. The Administration had earlier rushed into adopting, yet again through an illegal process and without due deliberation in University bodies, the computer-based online entrance examinations in the MCQ format for all disciplines, delinking of M.Phil and PhD and the policy of EWS reservation in admissions laid out in the MHRD Office Memorandum and forwarded by the UGC. The Administration didn’t even pause to consider the legalities involved or even the academic consequences of increasing intake in teaching programmes without any expansion of infrastructure and faculty strength and without any government commitment to provide the financial resources needed for this. This is the same Administration which had savagely cut admissions to research programmes in the name of implementing UGC Regulations and has been violating reservations in admissions for the last two academic years.
 
The policy of implementing EWS reservation in faculty recruitment, however, doesn’t even have the saving grace of deriving its legitimacy from guidelines or regulations of the UGC/MHRD or any law enacted by the Government. The documents referred to in the JNU Advt. No. RC/59/2019 refers only for reservation in direct recruitment to civil posts and services in the Government of India and not to teaching positions in Central Educational Institutions.
 
The JNUTA would also like to point that the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Teachers Cadre) Ordinance notified in the Gazette of India on 7 March 2019 and the MHRD Notification in under Sub Section (1) of Section 3 of that Ordinance also published in the Gazette on the same day, make no reference to reservations for the EWS category.
 
It clearly demonstrates that the Vice Chancellor in several matters but particularly of appointments has tended to treat the University as his estate where he can usurp all powers to himself beyond the ambit of law and JNU Act.
 
His unilateral decision to impose EWS reservation in teaching posts in JNU is just another example of the same. Even the implementation of the reservation roster is being done in a completely non-transparent manner. All the documents referred to in the JNU advertisement and other relevant documents to expose the illegality of the decision of the JNU Administration are attached.
 
The JNUTA also notes with alarm the fact that the University has also advertised short-term contractual positions for faculty appointments in the Schools of Management and Engineering – which also, in addition, undermines the reservation policy applicable to faculty appointments. The creation of both these Schools had been an outcome of extreme administrative fiat rather than being an organic development and faculty positions were transferred to them from other Centres/Schools.
 
The introduction of contractual appointments in them follows earlier decisions of charging exceptionally high fees to students enlisting in their programmes and special higher rates for guest/visiting faculty of these schools. These together indicate that these two new schools are becoming the model for the direction that JNU and other public universities are being pushed towards Graded Autonomy and HEFA financing. All these clearly are moves towards greater privatisation and making education out of reach for the poor citizens of this country.
 
The JNUTA demands the immediate withdrawal of the illegal and arbitrary actions of the JNU Administration. The JNUTA wishes to remind the Administration and the Vice Chancellor that repeated and varied attempts to intimidate them have not been able to shake the resolve of the teachers of JNU to fight the policy of destruction of the University. Those at the helm of this process of destruction will have to answer for their misdeeds.
 
Atul Sood, President, JNUTA
Avinash Kumar, Secretary, JNUTA
 
With inputs from agencies.
 

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New Delhi: The Delhi high court Friday stayed the mandatory marking of attendance for teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as decided by the academic and the executive council in July last year. The court stated that action against teachers for irregular attendance can be taken in accordance with laid down rules.
 
“..decision taken on July 13, 2018, in 146 A meeting of the Academic Council qua item ‘any other’, and approval of Executive Council dated August 23, 2018, in minutes of 275th meeting qua item 6.9 shall remain stayed,” Justice Suresh Kait said.
 
“Any subsequent decisions/proceedings pursuant to the decision taken in the two meetings have also been stayed by the court,” he added.
 
Earlier this week, it stayed a circular issued by the JNU administration last year mandating that faculty members mark their own attendance or submit attendance records of their students failing which any of their proposal or leave request will not be considered.
 
On Friday, the court said the varsity can take action against the teaching staff who go on unauthorised leave, according to the rules prevalent before the AC decision of July 13, 2018, making marking of attendance mandatory.
 
The interim order by Justice Suresh Kait comes close on the heels of his January 14 direction staying a circular of the Jawaharlal Nehru University administration, which had it mandatory for the teaching staff to mark their attendance once a day.
 
The court, granting interim relief to the petitioner, JNU professor Ayesha Kidwai, also issued a notice to JNU on her plea challenging the decisions of the Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) of the university and listed the matter for further hearing on May 3.
 
The court’s order came while hearing a plea by two faculty members — Ayesha Kidwai and Pratiksha Baxi— who had challenged the mandatory marking of attendance. The HC also sought the response of the varsity on the plea.
 
On Friday, the single judge bench said the university can act against teachers going on unauthorised leave, according to the rules prevalent before the decision of marking attendance was made mandatory.
 
Appearing for Kidwai, senior advocate Dhruv Mehta informed the court that the two councils did not follow proper procedure while taking the decision. Linking it to the privacy of a person, he said asking for biometrics amounted to breach of privacy of an individual.
 
Countering this, advocate Monika Arora, standing counsel for the Centre, submitted that if marking of attendance was not mandatory, then it would be difficult to ensure the presence of the teaching faculty as many of them go on vacation for months together. She also alleged that several students have complained about the long-term absence of teaching staff.
 
JNU teachers association (JNUTA) welcomed the decision. “JNUTA has been continuously pointing out that the decision-making processes in JNU under the current management has been marred by procedural violations and goes against the spirit of democratic governance that are critical requirements for a university. JNUTA is glad that this is being increasingly recognised and we are hopeful that with the support of the public at large, the process of destruction of a public university unleashed by the current administration will be stalled and reversed,” JNUTA secretary Avinash Kumar said.
 
Around the first week of January, the JNU administration had slammed JNUTA for seeking the opinion of colleagues from foreign universities on compulsory attendance for faculty members “just to oppose the administration.”
 
The JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) had recently shared findings of a survey conducted by them among universities across the world to obtain views on the marking of attendance for faculty, Kumar had said.
 
“No university/institutes of higher learning in 75 premiere and highly ranked universities across 21 countries except one, has the practice of faculty signing daily attendance register or using biometrics,” he said.
 
The JNUTA surveyed 32 universities in Europe, 27 in USA and Canada and 16 in other parts of the world.
 
Some of the universities surveyed in Europe included the University of Oxford, London School Of Economics, University of Cambridge, Kings College, London, Berlin School Of Economics and Law, which replied in the negative to JNUTA’s queries, according to the report.
 
JNUTA also received responses from 27 premiere public funded and private universities spread across the USA and Canada like Columbia University, Stanford University, Ohio State University, Indiana University, all of which said they do not practice the policy of marking attendance of the faculty using daily attendance register or biometrics.
 
“At the time of the February 9, 2016, incident, when alleged anti-India slogans were raised on campus, police had entered the campus to arrest then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. In the years that followed, the Administrative Block has become off limits for protests, and of late, JNUSU representatives say they are no longer invited to AC meetings,” Indian Express reported.
 
The Economist published a report about how JNU has seen a sea change in the last few years under the new VC and not all of it was good.
 

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