Indore : Chancellor of state universities Ram Naresh Yadav has postponed meeting for the VC search panel scheduled for January 7 citing ‘unforeseen reasons’, days after the 0Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court issued notices to the Chancellor and others on a petition claiming that the election of retired judge Gulab Sharma by the Executive Council of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) as its nominee for the search panel was flawed.
A letter received by DAVV acting vice chancellor Ashutosh Mishra from the Raj Bhawan states that the meeting of the V-C search panel, which was scheduled for January 7, has been deferred till next order due to unforeseen reasons.
While the Raj Bhawan did not disclose the reasons, it is believed that the meeting has been postponed following the petition filed by former RGPV Executive Council member Ajay Chordia in the High Court.
In his petition, Chordia alleged that election process adopted by the DAVV EC for election of its nominee in the VC search panel was flawed.
He requested the court to make Sharma’s election null and void and direct the DAVV EC to re-elect its nominee for the search panel tasked with shortlisting candidates for appointment of the V-C at DAVV.
Petitioner’s advocate Manohar Dalal said that two candidates, who had applied for the V-C’s post at DAVV had taken part in the voting conducted for electing EC nominee for the V-C search panel.
“Prof Ganesh Kawadia and Prof PK Gupta, who are EC members and have applied for the V-C post, had taken part in the voting process. Technically, they should have opted out of the voting process. As they participated in the process, it got flawed,” Dalal said.
Over the petition, the court issued notices to the Chancellor, Registrar RD Musalgaonkar, Sharma, Prof Gupta and Prof Kawadia and set January 25 as next date of hearing in the case.
6-week’s tenure of panel ends on Jan 15
The tenure of V-C search panel constituted for recommending candidates for appointment of VC at DAVV ends on January 15. As per Madhya Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, the panel has to recommend names for the V-C post within six weeks from the date of its constitution or such further time not exceeding four weeks as may be extended by the Chancellor.
If for any reasons the committee constituted fails to submit names of candidates for the V-C post within the stipulated period, the Chancellor should constitute another panel giving it a period of six weeks for submitting names of candidates for the V-C post. If it also fails to suggest the names for VC post then the Chancellor can appoint any person whom he deems fit to be the VC.
