The Executive Council of Jawaharlal Nehru University approved the appointment of Anirban Chakraborty, Professor and former Dean of School of Computational and Integrative Sciences (JNU), to take care of Registrar’s duties in the university on Friday.
His appointment has been questioned by the JNU Teachers’ Association on the grounds that he had been appointed by Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar and there was no Executive Council (EC) meeting to deliberate on the matter. The teachers’ body called it an “overreach of the powers of the V-C”.
The JNU administration, in a statement, said: “The EC approved an action taken by the V-C to appoint Mr. Chakraborty, to take care of the duties of the office of the Registrar of the university taken in accordance with the Statute 8(2) of JNU.” It said that the V-C, under JNU Statute, is authorised to take decisions on matters of urgency and report to the Executive Council, and thus he approved the appointment of Mr. Chakraborty on March 17.
“He will be taking care of the office of the Registrar until a new Registrar is appointed for which an advertisement has already been issued. It is unfortunate that a few faculty members of JNU have tried to manufacture a controversy over an appointment, which is otherwise a routine process,” the statement said.
The EC also approved the recommendation of JNU Finance Committee to explore the possibility of offering some services in hostels through Facility Management System that will enhance efficiency and accountability. The EC, in addition, approved the recommendation of the FC not to levy hostel fees for the Monsoon Semester, 2020, on students who did not stay in the hostel in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.
The university added that the EC has approved a placement policy to provide opportunity to aspiring students of the university to enable the students to interact with prospective recruiters to help them find jobs in their final semesters before they pass out from the university.
Another decision passed by the EC, the university said, was to name a few halls in the School of Engineering (SOE) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship (ABVSME) after eminent personalities – J.C. Bose Hall, Janaki Ammal Hall, Ramanujan Hall for School of Engineering and Sabari Hall and Kautilya Hall for ABVSME.
