March 23: The controversy over the rightful successors to vice-chancellors at Magadh University (MU) and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University (BBABU) is far from over.
While questions have been raised over elevation of MU dean of humanities C.P. Singh as acting vice-chancellor (VC), the fax message of the Muzaffarpur-based BBABU registrar to the chancellor has silenced Padmasha Jha, who made herself as “stopgap” VC yesterday afternoon.
No sooner had Jha accused registrar A.P. Mishra of “functioning in an arbitrary manner” yesterday than she was removed hours later. Mishra sent the name of dean of science Prasun Kumar Rai as acting vice-chancellor to Governor D.Y. Patil, also the university chancellor, late last evening. Mishra said he had acted according to the Supreme Court’s March 18 ruling.
In Gaya-based MU, Singh joined the office on the basis of a notification issued by varsity registrar D.K. Yadav. Following the apex court order, Yadav had sought legal opinion to decide seniority among the functioning deans. The registrar today said that Singh is senior-most dean functioning at MU, according to the legal opinion.
However, Ram Tawakya Singh — who filed the special leave petition challenging appointment of vice-chancellors by former governor-cum-chancellor Devanand Konwar — told The Telegraph over phone that the MU statutes state the dean is appointed for only a two-year term. There is no provision in the statute for extension of the tenure of the dean unless a fresh notification is issued. He termed today’s notification “erroneous”, as the term of Singh as dean has already expired on February 9, 2011.
Deans of different faculties at the MU are appointed for two-year tenure by the vice-chancellor on seniority basis. But the term of three deans — H.R. Rahman, C.P. Singh and Israel Khan — has ended on September 5, 2012, February 9, 2011 and January 22, 2013, respectively.
Although it is a violation of the university act, they continue to function as dean till date as the vice-chancellor did not appoint new dean or renewed the tenure of functioning deans after their two-year term expired.
Among other deans, Nand Ji Kumar has been appointed on March 31, 2012, S.S. Gupta on September 19, 2011, and Vishwanath Singh on March 29, 2012, and according to the statutes, these three persons are only functioning deans at the university.
Singh, the acting VC, said improvement of academic atmosphere on the campus would be his priority. Singh, however, said he would not be in a position to issue fresh notification for appointment of deans as it was a policy matter. “Only a regular VC can take such decisions,” he said.
