Retorting to the JNU administration's claims that it was adhering to rules and regulations in enforcing compulsory attendance, JNU Teachers Association today said it was a "fabrication to justify a hastily and arbitrarily adopted decision". JNUTA president Sonajharia Minz said the compulsory attendance move was months old, but throughout the course the administration did not make any reference - even once - about the rules it has claimed it was adhering to. "Reference to these provisions at this late stage is clearly an afterthought," Minz said. The registrar, Pramod Kumar, had yesterday released a statement saying the attendance was made compulsory based on Academic Council meeting held on December 1, 2017, Ordinances 10 and 22 of JNU, UGC guidelines for fellowships and Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. The teachers' body retorted to all of them and said: "The minutes of the council meeting have been contested repeatedly as they do not accurately reflect what transpired in the meeting." On Ordinances, Minz said: "The registrar has cited Ordinance 10 on the powers of the deans to maintain attendance records but he seems to have conveniently omitted the mention of the clause which says - when these are prescribed." Such deliberate, selective reading allows the registrar to draw a conclusion that is the exact opposite of what the provision read in full means - that the attendance rules are not mandatory, she added. Minz said UGC guidelines were not regulations and if it were to imply compulsory attendance, then it would explicitly stated so. "It is also pertinent to note that these particular clauses of the UGC rules are applicable to those who avail the Junior or Senior Research Fellowships and not on all research students," she said. She also pointed out that the Registrar "conveniently overlooked" a Supreme Court Order, dated 2011, that qualifies the applicability of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations to JNUSU elections. "The SC order specifically provides an exception on the attendance requirement on the grounds that attendance is not maintained in JNU," she said. JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) along with JNU Students Union has been holding protests on daily basis against the compulsory attendance initiative ever since it was enforced.
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