Nagpur: Even as the Management Council (MC) refused to reconsider the procedure adopted to appoint 92 assistant professors on contract basis, it has come to fore that governor CH Vidyasagar Rao had sought a factual report from vice-chancellor SP Kane regarding the norms laid for the recruitment.
Former director of Central India Institute of Mass Communication (CIIMC) Sunil Mishra has contended that the contract teachers are ‘part-time employees’ while the Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016 and the 2013 high court ruling restrict the university from making such appointments.
On August 30, MC member Nitin Kongre had brought this to the notice of the House and demanded the VC to place the report before it, yet the appeal was turned out.
VC Kane didn’t answer to TOI’s calls and message.
Mishra had written to the governor, who is chancellor of state universities, alleging illegality in direction 11 of 2018 framed for fixing terms and conditions of the appointments.
Surprisingly, the NU didn’t come clean on the complaint by keeping the report submitted to the chancellor under wraps.
Mishra’s letter to the chancellor is the fourth such document challenging the recruitment procedure while MC members RG Bhoyar and Nitin Kongre had opposed the move in their letters to VC. Former NUTA secretary Anil Dhage too had highlighted the flaws in his letter to the VC last month.
In its meeting on August 30, the MC has brushed aside all the concerns raised by Dhage, Bhoyar, Kongre and Mishra and has decided to go ahead with the appointments through applications of the contentious norms without any reconsideration.
Mishra has alleged that the VC has lost sight of the direction of the high court and Supreme Court orders passed in the 250 banned colleges issue as well as violated the Act. “The exercise (recruitment drive) undertaken by the vice chancellor not only violates the provisions of the Act but also the direction issued by the high court and supreme course,” Mishra’s complaint to chancellor read.
The HC had ordered the university and the government to ensure full time teachers in affiliated colleges and the ruling was upheld by the SC in 2013.
Mishra has sought suitable order to annul the ‘illegal’ direction No 11 of 2018 notified on May 9 this year. He stated that the direction is inconsistent with Section 2 (68) read with Sections 102, 103 and 14(5) of the Act. He also suggested the chancellor to initiate action under Section 11 (14)(e) of the Act as it has been a deliberate violation of the Act.
Earlier, Bhoyar has questioned the NU’s intention to spend students fee collected under general funds on the salaries of the 92 contract teachers. Kongre had pointed out the flaw in Management Council decision which provided for the appointment of non-teaching staff and not teachers. Dhage stated that the NU was not following its own rules and UGC Regulation in fixing salaries, service condition and the number of appointments.
