SC orders removal of SP University VC
TNN | Mar 4, 2022, 03.57 AM IST
Ahmedabad: In an important order, the Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the appointment of the vice-chancellor of Sardar Patel University, Shirish Kulkarni, after he was found to not have adequate teaching experience to hold the crucial post.
While ordering the removal of the vice chancellor, the apex court bench of Justice M R Shah and B V Nagarathna castigated the Gujarat government for continuing with the SP University Act and state legislation that are not in consonance with University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and for not amending its law for such appointments despite being told to by the UGC, the state’s governor in 2014 and the Gujarat high court in 2018. The SC observed that the state government and its universities have continued to make appointment of VCs in violation of UGC regulations, which prescribe minimum teaching experience for the post, but the government and search committees, formed to nominate VCs, continue to compromise with quality.
The SC asked the government to consider amending its legislation to deal with the issue of appointment of unqualified persons to the top positions of the highest educational institutes. It criticised present conditions and called for raising the bar by selecting well-qualified people for VC posts. It said, “It is correct to say that a vice-chancellor is the kingpin of a university’s system and a keeper of the university conscience.”
With this observation, the judges also quoted Chanakya Nitishastra’s maxim “Yatha raja, tatha praja” (as is the king, so are the subjects) to describe the affairs at Gujarat’s universities, where people otherwise not qualified have been appointed as VCs.
In this case, Kulkarni was appointed VC of SP University in 2016. One Gambhirsinh Gadhvi approached the HC first and then the SC through senior advocate I H Syed, and submitted that UGC regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education, 2010’, mandates 10 years of teaching experience as a professor for the post. But the search committee ignored this criteria.
