Delhi University AC, EC members write to VC over issue of governing bodies

NEW DELHI : Several members of Delhi University's statutory bodies wrote to Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Monday raising concerns over the denial of extension of governing bodies (GB) of colleges funded by the Delhi government. In a letter, eight Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) members accused the university of suggesting GB members' names without consulting the statutory bodies and alleged that due to the non-consultation, the panel of names suffers from "political partisanship". There was no immediate reaction from the university.

There are 28 DU colleges fully or partly funded by the Delhi government which selects the 10 members of a governing body of these colleges. Five members of a governing body are directly selected by the government and the rest are chosen from the names suggested by a university panel.

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"The university administration has not given an extension of three months (to governing bodies) despite such a provision under Clause 3(1) of Order XVIII. There have been long-standing conventions for such extensions despite the different political strands of the central and the state governments," the letter read. "Even the panel of 178 names has been sent by the administration to the Delhi government without any consultation with members of AC and EC, which has been long-standing precedent," the letter added.

The members pointed out that this is also not in consonance with Clause A-1 of EC Resolution 51, 2012 which says that "the panel of names to be sent by the university to the government of Delhi" and Clause 17 of DU Act 1922 clearly vests the authority of the university in the statutory bodies like AC and EC. The signatories are EC members -- Seema Das and Rajpal Singh Pawar -- and AC members -- Asha Jassal, Kapila Mallah, Alok Ranjan Pandey, Sunil Kumar, C M Neg and Aditya Narayan Misra.

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The members requested to withdraw the names and send them after revising it as per the statutory provisions. "Due to this non-consultation, the panel not only suffers from political partisanship but also some discrepancies too. It has names of the employees of a college and a sitting member of EC who can't become GB members due to Clause 3-1(b) & (c) of EC Resolution 51, 2012," the letter read. "So, we request you to withdraw this panel and send it after revising it as per the statutory provisions. It has been sent by the administration without any consultation with members of AC and EC, which has been a long-standing precedent," it added.