NUSRL VC BS Nirmal not paid 15-month salary; suffers heart attack

NEW DELHI, AUG 1: It has been around 15 months that NUSRL Ranchi Vice Chancellor, Dr BC Nirmal had received his last salary and allowances. Recently the NUSRL VC suffered a heart attack at Ranchi, following which he has been admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

Prof Nirmal had been forced to go on leave for a month in the month of May 2017, following allegations of maladministration. Further, the NUSRL VC had not been allowed to resume his duties in the capacity of Vice Chencellor, since then.

Dr BC Nirmal was quoted saying, “I have neither been suspended nor removed from office. Withholding my salary and allowances is unjustified, illegal and unconstitutional.”

Dr Nirmal has also sent a legal notice to the acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, Justice DN Patel, who is apparently the NUSRL Chancellor. In the legal notice, the NLU Ranchi VC refuting various allegations against him, has also sought the release of the long-pending wages and allowances since May 2017 besides permission to re-join his duties.

The allegations

Prof BC Nirmal is facing allegations of inactions and being held responsible for protests that paralyzed the University functions in early 2017. He was also asked to show-cause as to why no action should be taken against him, regarding appointment of teaching and no-teaching staff of the Ranchi NLU.

Dr Nirmal responding to these allegations had said, “The Recruitment Committee had vindicated my stand on the appointment of teaching staff by regularising all those which I had appointed as Teaching Assistants.”

Prof Nirmal further added that he had followed the established NUSRL Ranchi recruitment procedure in all the appointments made.

The other take

According to different media sources, the forced-leave of Prof Nirmal was planned to keep him at bay so that a recruitment scam could be orchestrated. The sources also had revealed soon after Prof Nirmal left his VC office taking the ‘forced leave’ on the High Court’s advice, the University Executive Committee passed two resolutions. The first resolution was changing the age of superannuation of Vice Chancellor to 65 years from 70 years and the second resolution was recruitment of permanent faculty members.

Surprisingly, more than a year had passed when Prof Nirmal left the VC office and no committee has been constituted to initiate an inquiry against him.

Dr BC Nirmal had been earlier quoted saying, “All I want is an opportunity to end this humiliation and make a swift and graceful exit.”

NUSRL Ranchi is currently functioning under the leadership of Gautam Chaudhary who is serving as Acting VC. Surprisingly, protests similar to one putting Prof Nirmal on ‘forced leave’ were rekindled in the Acting VC’s tenure citing same reasons of maladministration.

The NUSRL Ranchi administration has now chosen to deal these protests by deploying law enforcement agencies in the University campus.