PIL in High Court: Central University of Gujarat appointments dilute quality, undermine excellence

By Dr Chhagan Lal*
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was admitted in the Gujarat High Court against what it calls large-scale illegal appointments being made in the Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Gandhinagar, a public funded national institution.
The PIL, filed by the Anamat Samarthan Samiti, has alleged that appointments of senior teachers in CUG were being made based on personal contact and consideration of the vice-chancellor rather than on issuance of advertisement and open selection based on merit through duly constituted selection committee, which is seriously compromising academic standards, diluting the quality of teachers and undermining excellence associated with central universities.
It claims that Prof SA Bari, vice-chancellor, has illegally appointed his wife Dr Rachel K Bari as Professor of English Studies, Dr Tamishraha Bagchi as Professor of Nano Sciences, Dr JPN Mishra as Professor of Life Sciences, and Dr Muttayya Koganuramath as Professor of Library Science without any advertisement, scrutiny committee, duly constituted selection committee, violating the provision of the Central Universities Act, 2009, and prevailing Universities Grants Commission (UGC) regulations/norms of faculty selections.
Similarly, PIL says, he had appointed Prof SL Hiremath as registrar in gross violation of the provision of Government of India recruitment rules for appointment by deputation. It also states that Prof N Rajaram was appointed as Professor of Sociology in CUG in totally unfair, unresonable and illegal way.
The plea further submits that current recruitment process at the University is non-transparent and arbitrary as it involves non-disclosure of the names of candidates called for interview in public domain, inviting for interview those candidates who are otherwise declared not eligible by scrutiny committee, lack of uniformity of scrutiny criteria across subjects and conversion of a number of reserved posts into open posts.
It cites complaints from a number of candidates who belonged to reserved category relating to malpractices, illegalities and irregularities in the recruitment process at CUG.
It pleads that "if the recruitment process is completed in the way in which it is being continued, it will cause irreparable loss to various meritorious and eligible persons from not only reserved categories of scheduled castes/ scheduled tribes/ other backward classes (SC/ST/OBC) but also general category, and only those who are influential or kith and kin of the management of the University and its officials or persons at the highest level in the party in power will get employment."
The plea prays for setting up of high level committee to conduct inquiry into the recruitment process conducted by Vice-Chancellor Prof SA Bari and cancelation of all illegal appointments made by him. Further, it prays that Prof Bari be restrained from in any manner participating in the entire recruitment process pursuant to the public advertisement of February,2016 till it is complete in all respect.
PIL details:
High Court of Gujarat writ petition (PIL) No 5 of 2017, represented for the Anamat Samarthan Samiti by Senior Advocate Mr Bharat T Rao; the names of the respondents are: Union of India; SA BARI; Central University of Gujarat; Prof N Rajaram; Dr Rachel K Bari; Prof JPN Mishra; Prof Tamishraha Bagchi; Prof Muttayya Koguanuramath; Prof SL Hirenmath.
---
*Associate Professor and Head Department of Chemistry, HB Technical University, Kanpur

Comments

Dr Subhan Khan said…

As You Sow So Shall You Reap-dr subhan Khan, Patron, Mewat Development Society(MDS) & Chief Scientist(Retd.), CSIR-NISTADS, New Delhi.

February 27, 2017

Vaccine nationalism? Covaxin isn't safe either, perhaps it's worse: Experts

By Rajiv Shah I was a little awestruck: The news had already spread that Astrazeneca – whose Indian variant Covishield was delivered to nearly 80% of Indian vaccine recipients during the Covid-19 era – has been withdrawn by the manufacturers following the admission by its UK pharma giant that its Covid-19 vector-based vaccine in “rare” instances cause TTS, or “thrombocytopenia thrombosis syndrome”, which lead to the blood to clump and form clots. The vaccine reportedly led to at least 81 deaths in the UK.

'Scientifically flawed': 22 examples of the failure of vaccine passports

By Vratesh Srivastava* Vaccine passports were introduced in late 2021 in a number of places across the world, with the primary objective of curtailing community spread and inducing "vaccine hesitant" people to get vaccinated, ostensibly to ensure herd immunity. The case for vaccine passports was scientifically flawed and ethically questionable.

'Misleading' ads: Are our celebrities and public figures acting responsibly?

By Deepika* It is imperative for celebrities and public figures to act responsibly while endorsing a consumer product, the Supreme Court said as it recently clamped down on misleading advertisements.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor* Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Mired in controversy, India's polio jab programme 'led to suffering, misery'

By Vratesh Srivastava* Following the 1988 World Health Assembly declaration to eradicate polio by the year 2000, to which India was a signatory, India ran intensive pulse polio immunization campaigns since 1995. After 19 years, in 2014, polio was declared officially eradicated in India. India was formally acknowledged by WHO as being free of polio.

In defence of Sam Pitroda: Is calling someone look like African, black racist?

By Rajiv Shah Sam Pitroda, known as the father of Indian telecom revolution, has been in the midst of a major controversy for a remark on how Indians across the regions look different. While one can understand Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking it up for his electoral gain, suggesting it showed the racist Congress mindset, what was unpalatable to me was Congress leaders – particularly Jairam Ramesh, known for his deep intellectual understand – distancing themselves from what Pitroda had said.

'Fake encounter': 12 Adivasis killed being dubbed Maoists, says FACAM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network* Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM), even as condemn what it has called "fake encounter" of 12 Adivasi villagers in Gangaloor, has taken strong exception to they being presented by the authorities as Maoists.

No compensation to family, reluctance to file FIR: Manual scavengers' death

By Arun Khote, Sanjeev Kumar* Recently, there have been four instances of horrifying deaths of sewer/septic tank workers in Uttar Pradesh. On 2 May, 2024, Shobran Yadav, 56, and his son Sushil Yadav, 28, died from suffocation while cleaning a sewer line in Lucknow’s Wazirganj area. In another incident on 3 May 2024, two workers Nooni Mandal, 36 and Kokan Mandal aka Tapan Mandal, 40 were killed while cleaning the septic tank in a house in Noida, Sector 26. The two workers were residents of Malda district of West Bengal and lived in the slum area of Noida Sector 9.

India 'not keen' on legally binding global treaty to reduce plastic production

By Rajiv Shah Even as offering lip-service to the United Nations Environment Agency (UNEA) for the need to curb plastic production, the Government of India appears reluctant in reducing the production of plastic. A senior participant at the UNEP’s fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), which took place in Ottawa in April last week, told a plastics pollution seminar that India, along with China and Russia, did not want any legally binding agreement for curbing plastic pollution.

Counterview

Search This Blog