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New Delhi: The Delhi high court has restrained the newly appointed nine chairpersons by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice-chancellor (VC) professor M. Jagadesh Kumar from taking any major decisions, saying that the VC is not vested with the power to appoint chairpersons, the Indian Express reported.
The division bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice Talwant Singh said that only the executive council has the power to appoint chairpersons, and not the VC.
The high court was hearing a petition filed by professor Atul Sood who challenged the approval granted by the executive council to the nine appointments made by the VC, and argued that the appointments cannot emanate from the VC.
However, the varsity argued that the VC had exercised the powers under Statue 4(5) of the Statute of the university. But the court said that the VC can exercise such powers “only when immediate action is required”.
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In the 296th meeting of the executive council, Sood had raised this issue and said that the appointments made by the VC are flawed. Despite this, the VC went on to appoint the chairpersons of the concerned centres/special centres, the order read, as per the news report.
The division bench also noted in its order that after a single bench of the high court on September 28 had refused to stay the nine appointments made by the VC, he went ahead with the appointment of another person as chairperson of a language centre on October 8, again exercising the ’emergency powers’ vested in him.
The single-bench had adjourned the hearing of Sood’s petition to February 18, 2022, following which he filed an appeal against the order declining to stay the appointments.
The division bench has requested the single judge to advance Sood’s writ petition, and listed the matter for hearing before that court on November 10.