Appointment of registrar sparks fresh row at JNU

Appointment of registrar sparks fresh row at JNU

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:26.03.2021 

Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has raised questions on the appointment of the new registrar, stating that the move was not approved by the executive council (EC). Anirban Chakraborty was appointed as the registrar on March 17.

The teachers said that an office order stated that Chakraborty was appointed following “due approval from the competent authority”. “The question is precisely this — who is the competent authority in the matter of appointment of the registrar? Statute 8(1) of university rules categorically states that the registrar shall be appointed by the EC and be a whole-time salaried officer of the university,” said the JNUTA statement, adding that there had neither been a meeting on the matter, nor any specific approval sought.

The teachers also pointed out that the presence of the registrar in the executive council was not permitted under JNU’s statutes. “EC is the highest statutory body of a university, whose approval is required in all matters related to it.”

“The newly appointed registrar’s backdoor entry into the executive council by a fiat issued by the vice-chancellor is not just suspicious, but also illegal. To make matters worse, for the first time in the history of JNU, the registrar has been recorded as being a member of the executive council. Statute 8 (3) explicitly states that ‘the registrar shall not by reason only of his being secretary of the court, the executive and the academic councils be deemed to be a member of any of these authorities’.

Despite this, both the outgoing and the incumbent registrar have been mentioned as members of the EC in the agenda of the 294th executive council meeting due on Friday,” added the statement.

JNUTA has also reacted to the statement issued by the registrar on Tuesday, where the association was termed as “handful of teachers” trying to disrupt the image of the university. The administration did not respond to the allegations of the teachers’ association.

The new registrar had issued a statement where he claimed that ‘a handful of teachers’ were trying to disrupt the image of JNU