JMI teachers demand withdrawal of leave rules, show cause notices issued to faculty members

NEW DELHI : Jamia Millia Islamia's teachers' body has passed resolutions opposing the university's new leave rules and show cause notices issued to some Hindi department faculty members for refusing to translate its annual report, among other things. The Jamia Teachers' Association (JTA) passed the resolutions at a meeting of its general body on August 3, putting forth a series of demands, including setting up an inquiry committee to examine the cases of show cause notices. A university official, however, told PTI on Tuesday that the JTA does not have any legal right to call a general body meeting (GBM) as its tenure ended in May this year.

At its general body meeting, the JTA called for the revocation of the new leave rules. "The recently implemented leave rules are regressive and affect teachers' participation in various teaching, research, extension activities," the minutes of the read. The teachers' body also called for the withdrawal of special orders that were issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. "A regular Academic Calendar with two months of summer breaks (16 May to 15 July) and winter break (24 December to 15 January) should be released," it said. Hostels and canteens on the campus should be opened with immediate effect as this will promote the teaching-learning process, it added.

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The JTA claimed eight teachers of the Hindi department have been issued "unwarranted" show cause notices. "House demands that such show causes should immediately be revoked," the minutes of the meeting said. The JTA also demanded that an inquiry committee be constituted with representation from the teachers' body to examine the cases of show causes issued to these teachers. It called for the resolution of all pending financial matters at the earliest. "Such matters are related to medical bills, examination bills, retirement benefits... which have been severely curtailed (and) should be restored to pre-Covid time. House requests VC to use her influence to get the pending grants released for meeting the need of the university," the minutes of the meeting stated.

Flagging the non-availability of officers in important full-time positions like finance officer, controller of examination, registrar, etc., the JTA noted that the functioning of the university is suffering because of these posts lying vacant. According to the minutes of the meeting, more than 220 teachers attended the JTA's general body meeting "despite heavy rains".

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The JMI official, however, claimed otherwise. "Many teachers have expressed their objections to the GBM. There was thin attendance at the meeting," he said. On show cause notices being issued to Hindi department teachers, the official said, "Every year, the Hindi department translates the university's annual report from English to Hindi. Some teachers held a meeting and declared that they will not do the job assigned to them. This led the administration to issue notices to them questioning their move. The official also denied that any positions were lying vacant. "None of the positions is vacant as qualified people are working on these posts. The Ministry of Education is yet to finalise its Non-Teaching Recruitment Rules and we are waiting for it," he said.

Separately, some teachers have written to the JTA asking how many times during its tenure it took up with the administration the issues flagged by them in the GBM. "It seems like you woke up when the election is around the corner for the next JTA office-bearers," the teachers said in the letter. They claimed most of the issues have been pending for the last two terms of the JTA.