Ex-NU member accuses VC of ‘favouritism’ in dean appointment

Nagpur: A former senate member has lodged a complaint with chancellor Bhagat Singh Koshyari alleging that Nagpur University vice-chancellor Subhash Chaudhari was engaged in favouritism for appointing faculty of interdisciplinary studies dean, interview for which is scheduled on November 11.
Manmohan Bajpayee, a three-time senator, has also dispatched a copy of the complaint to chief minister Eknath Shinde and higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil.
Alleging blatant violation of rules and regulations by VC, Bajpayee demanded that the chancellor initiate strict disciplinary action against him. “Toleration of such an apparent statutory violation would amount to protecting illegality committed by VC. I am confident that immediate cognizance of this complaint would be taken by the chancellor,” he said while warning that he may be constrained to approach the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court in case the complaint was ignored.
TOI sent queries in this regard to NU PRO professor Dharmesh Dhawankar for Chaudhari’s comments. He, however, said that Chaudhari did not want to comment on such “controversial issues”.
NU had published advertisements for four posts of deans on April 29, 2021. The qualifications and experience mentioned were as per the rules, which required the candidates to be an eminent scholar having PhD in the subjects concerned.
Though posts of deans for faculties of science and technology, commerce and management, and humanities were filled up, interdisciplinary sciences was surprisingly kept vacant on the pretext that the panel headed by pro-VC Sanjay Dudhe “did not find any suitable candidate”.
On July 20, Chaudhari issued a direction no. 28/2022 where he prescribed new rules for the facultywise distribution of subjects, under the powers prescribed to him as per Section 12(8) of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016. NU had published an advertisement for interdisciplinary faculty dean’s post on June 13 where the qualifications prescribed were “an eminent scholar having a PhD degree in any discipline”.
Bajpayee pointed out that faculty of interdisciplinary studies encompasses five subjects – education, physical education and research, mass communication, library and information science and law. “The candidate should have possessed requisite qualifications in these five subjects only and not in any other discipline. NU advertisement is a gross violation of direction no. 28/2022. This is a deliberate attempt by VC to appoint a favourite candidate, when he has a statutory duty to ensure compliance of statutory provisions as per Section 12 (5) of MPU Act.”
Bajpayee said VC was expected to prescribe appropriate qualifications for the dean of interdisciplinary studies, but no corrigendum was issued after the June 13 advertisement for correcting it. “The entire process is thus vitiated, and the VC was solely responsible for illegality and violation of the norms,” he said.
Allegations against VC
* NU published advertisement for interdisciplinary faculty dean’s post on June 13
* Qualifications prescribed were an eminent scholar having a PhD degree in any discipline
* VC issued direction no. 28/2022 on July 20 prescribing new rules for faculty-wise distribution of subjects
* Faculty comprises education, physical education & research, mass communication, library & information science, and law
* Candidate should have possessed requisite qualifications in these five subjects only and not in any other discipline
* NU advertisement is gross violation of direction no. 28/2022, but no corrigendum published
* Deliberate attempt by VC to appoint a favourite candidate, when he has a statutory duty to ensure faithful compliance of statutory provisions