NU PG law dept merger with its law college sparks row

Nagpur: The Nagpur University (NU) plans to merge its postgraduate department of law with its Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law has courted a major controversy.
Vice-chancellor SP Kane has made a U-turn after issuing directives in September last year and forming a committee led by himself and college principal Shrikant Komawar as member-secretary following objections from a section of NU as well as former statutory bodies.
While the committee members are viewing the move as beneficial for students, the opponents have expressed concern over loss of jobs to teachers at the PG department and disturbance to the roster. The formation of committee and the directives too have come under scanner.
The opponents have called the committee and the Direction 40 of 2019 as “illegal” and “arbitrary”.
VC Kane didn’t respond to TOI’s calls. Acting pro-VC Vinayak Deshpande said no decision has been taken so far regarding merger issue. “A committee under my chairmanship is constituted to study the issue. We will be seeking opinion of stakeholders, social thinkers, etc. It is a proposal. Legal issues if any will also be taken into account,” he said.
In September last year, the committee ‘RTMNU Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law Management Committee for Management and Maintenance of the College’ was formed. Besides Kane and Komawar, the committee comprises two management council members, a retired judge of SC or HC within NU jurisdiction, a senior advocate, one full-time teacher of the college, joint director and internal quality cell officer.
Among the key functions of the committee is to suggest amalgamation take over or merger of the college with any other postgraduate teaching department of the university to create a new teaching and research institution with new suitable names. Also, it has been mandated to prepare an overall comprehensive plan for the growth and development of the college, covering infrastructure, and academic programmes.
Former management council member Mahendra Nimbarte said the university has no powers to form such a committee as per the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016. “It is an illegal committee. Every one was kept in the dark. If this merger happens, then teachers will lose jobs while the roster will get disturbed. When we spoke to the VC, he denied having any knowledge of the direction. It suggests he signed it without reading or maybe he was misled,” Nimbarte said.