KU retains faculty even after resolution for their termination in EC
Warangal Urban: Even after 18 months of the decision of the Executive Council and proven bias, favouritism and irregularities in the selection procedure, as many as 31 assistant professors appointed in contravention of rules and regulations continue to be in service in Kakatiya University (KU).
These assistant professors were appointed in May, 2010, when Prof N Linga Murthy was the Vice-Chancellor. Their appointment kicked off a row and some aggrieved candidates who did not get selected approached the government about the irregularities had moved the High Court too.
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While several petitions are still pending, in February 2011, one writ petition 12563/2010 filed by Dr Naini Vinatha, an aggrieved candidate in the Zoology Department, was allowed in the High Court and the judgment in the case set aside the selection and appointment of Dr Ch Sravanthi and Dr G Rajender, the selected candidates in Zoology Department on grounds that the selection committee members did not evaluate the candidates independently, and had hence, violated the mandatory procedure prescribed in the University Ordinance.
The Executive Council meeting which approved the selection was invalid since it did not have the minimum required quorum as required by the University Act and the selection committee committed several irregularities in awarding marks to competing candidates, the court said in its ruling.
Aggrieved by the Single Judge’s verdict, Dr Sravanthi and Dr Rajender appealed to the Division Bench of the High Court in 2015. But the petition was dismissed stating that it cannot amend the judgment of the Single Bench. Dr Sravanthi and Dr Rajender then appealed to the Supreme Court which also disposed of the appeals in May 2015 against their favour stating: “In the said circumstances, we are also convinced that the direction of the Division Bench does not call for interference.” Further, the Apex Court directed that the matter be placed before the reconstituted Executive Council within two months.
Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the matter was placed before the reconstituted full quorum Executive Council in its 129th meeting held on October 23, 2019. The EC then constituted a Sub-Committee including Navin Mittal, IAS officer, as Chairman, Prof T Manohar and Dr Nagendra Babu as members, and Registrar as convenor to go through the proceedings of the selection committee for the notifications of 2009 and notification 4/2021 vis-a-vis the directions of the High Court and Supreme Court and submit its report.
The Sub-Committee submitted its report to the EC and the same was placed before the EC’s 130th meeting on November 15, 2019. The Executive Council found that there were several deviations from the norms in awarding marks to the competing candidates in the selection process and therefore resolved “not to approve the selections made by the Selection Committees other than the single applicant in BC-D (W) category in Library and Information Science” with regard to Notification No.2/2009 and “other than the single applicant in BC-C (W) category of EEE branch” with regard to Notification No. 01/2009.
This matter was again reviewed by the Emergency Executive Council (EC) meeting held at the request of some EC members and that meeting too reiterated the same decision of its earlier meeting dated November 15, 2019. “This matter was then referred to the State government for its approval. Meanwhile, the University continues to pay salaries to these illegal appointees from the public exchequer. The students at the university are being taught by teachers who were recruited fraudulently against the parameters of merit. With such unmeritorious faculty, research at the university is heavily compromised putting the standard, ranking and reputation of the university at stake. In view of this, I urge the government to terminate the services of the illegally appointed teachers and take up a fresh recruitment drive,” Dr Vinatha told Telangana Today.
Meanwhile, the University Registrar and Secretary, Executive Council (EC), Prof K Purushotham, when contacted, said the November 15, 2019, EC meeting resolved to approve the observations of the sub-committee headed by Navin Mittal, who was then commissioner of collegiate education. It also resolved ‘not to approve’ selections (31) made by the Selection Committees other than the single applicant in BC-D (W) category in Library and Information Science” with regard to Notification No.2/2009 and “other than the single applicant in BC-C (W) category of EEE branch” with regard to Notification No. 01/2009.
“Following this, the university referred the matter to the State government to take a decision on the matter considering some clauses of the Kakatiya University Act, 1976,” he said, adding that the decision of the government would be final.
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