New JNU V-C starts putting team in place

The first of these was made on February 7, the day she took charge, with Professor Ajay Kumar Dubey of the Centre for African Studies being appointed as the new Rector. An office order in this regard had been issued by the Registrar and the decision ratified in a subsequent Executive Council meeting. JNU previously had three rectors — Rector I Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector II Satishi Garkoti and Rector III Rana P Singh. As of now, Dubey remains the only one.

Along with the Rector, the other administrative appointment that was ratified in the EC was of the Finance Officer (FO). Former FO Sameer Sharma was replaced by Acting FO Anup Kuksal.

In addition to this, changes have taken place in the Dean of Schools as well. Since the start of her tenure, four Schools and Special Centres have seen a change in leadership. Kedar Singh was appointed Dean of the School of Physical Sciences on February 8, Srikanth Kondapalli and Kaushal Kumar Sharma were appointed Deans of the School of International Studies (SIS) and the School of Social Sciences (SSS) respectively on February 10, and Vinay Kumar Rao was appointed the Chairperson of the Special Centre for the Study of North East India on February 22.

Sources said in at least two of these cases — SIS and SSS — the former Deans did not receive a phone call intimating them of their replacement. When contacted, Former Dean SIS Ashwini Mahapatra refused to comment, while Former SSS Dean D N Das did not respond to calls or messages. Both their deanships had been under scrutiny, with allegations of violation of seniority norms in appointing them. While Das had superseded 59 more senior professors to become Dean SSS in July 2019, Mahapatra had superseded 22 professors to become SIS Dean in August 2019.

When contacted, Pandit said, “Every V-C has a right to choose his or her team. This is by statutes. All V-Cs did it. A Dean is only for two years. Cannot go on forever.”