JNU Executive Council clears Professor Emeritus title for Amitabh Mattoo after his voluntary retirement

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has decided to confer the title of Professor Emeritus upon Amitabh Mattoo, dean of School of International Studies (SIS), JNU, the Hindu reported. The university’s executive council will award Mattoo the title after his voluntary retirement on February 28, 2027, the report said.

The decision by the JNU executive council comes a month after the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) condemned the university’s decision to confer the title of professor Emeritus on professor PR Kumaraswamy.

The JNUTA alleged that Kumaraswamy was being awarded the title due to favouritism, disregard for ethical standards, and abuse of executive power.

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'Amitabh Mattoo is the only Padma Shri awardee at JNU'

Mattoo’s name was recommended by Rajesh Rajagopalan professor from SIS, according to the report. He was the chair of the centre for international politics, organisation and disarmament at SIS, and also a former vice-chancellor of the University of Jammu, the report read.

Notably, Mattoo is the only Padma Shri awardee currently on the rolls of JNU , the report added.

Mattoo said in the report: “JNU has never been simply a place where I work but has been my intellectual home and the crucible of my ideas. One may retire from a university’s service, but never from its embrace.”

“Over the years I have been fortunate in honours and in office. This one is different. It comes from an institution to which I have given a great deal of myself, and from which I have received far more,” he said in the report.

The Professor Emeritus status is a rarely and selectively given honour, and has been bestowed upon only fifteen eminent persons amongst hundreds who have served with distinction as faculty in JNU.

It is conferred upon to recognize the extraordinary academic distinction, significant and distinctive contribution to the development of JNU as an institution.