JNU decides to implement mandatory biometric attendance for teaching staff

Despite resistance from several stakeholders, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration has decided to implement mandatory biometric attendance for teaching staff. The decision was taken after the executive council (EC) meeting on July 30, when the matter was brought up for discussion.

On Wednesday night, the varsity administration released minutes of the meeting which said: “After due deliberation, the EC resolved that all faculty members should mark biometric attendance at any time during office hours, except when they are on prior approved leave or on official duty.”

The university cited the 2018 UGC regulations, which require that “workload of teachers in full employment should not be less than forty hours a week for thirty working weeks or 180 teaching days in an academic year.”

An elected EC representative, requesting anonymity, said the administration could have deliberated upon how to ensure minimum working hours but it does not necessitate the need for biometric machines.

“Members dissented but it was not recorded. Better means of accountability have to be devised than this strange system of punching in and out,” the representative said. “In colleges and institutes, teaching goes on throughout the day but since ours is a teaching-research institute, we are supposed to visit libraries outside JNU and engage in research as well. It does not make sense to put biometric machines at one place and expect us to go and give our thumb impression there all the time.”

The members also wrote to the JNU Vice-Chancellor on July 29 requesting withdrawal of the said agenda since any attempt to discuss or enforce the biometric attendance system would “constitute wilful disobedience of the Delhi High Court order”. It refers to the stay imposed by the Delhi HC in January on a JNU circular which made it mandatory for faculty members to mark attendance.

Avinash Kumar, general secretary of the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), said, “This is a blatant violation of the HC order. We will certainly bring this to the attention of the court because the elected EC representatives of teachers had categorically said that the move would be liable for contempt. So, this is like taking a back-door entry for the same thing as there is no difference between the resolution that was stayed and what it is now.”

Last month, the administration had begun the process for issuing smart ID cards which would store biometric data of non-teaching staff and would be used for multiple purposes, including attendance. JNUTA had raised objections stating that the issuance of “all-in-one-smart cards” would “coerce employees, faculty and students to give their biometric data in violation of their fundamental right to privacy.”

JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar, however, pointed towards another point in the HC order. “The court also said the university could take action for unauthorised absence of teachers. So, to ensure this, some mechanism to mark the attendance had to be developed. In the light of the court order, the EC has decided to record biometric attendance of teachers. We are asking to just mark their attendance once a day whenever they come.”

First Published: Aug 09, 2019 21:19 IST