Patna University has failed to comply with the Raj Bhavan order revoking the suspension of English teacher Shiv Jatan Thakur almost a month after the directive was issued.

According to the directive of the chancellor's office issued on August 16, Thakur's suspension was to be revoked with immediate effect. But the vice-chancellor's (VC's) office first sat on the directive and later petitioned Raj Bhavan seeking review of the chancellor's directive. VC Y.C. Simhadri suspended Thakur on July 11 for his "misconduct" at a meeting he convened.

With delay in revoking the suspension, Thakur has again knocked the door of the chancellor's office seeking action against the VC for his gross insubordination. Thakur, in his letter, has mentioned that the continuance of suspension has caused unbearable harassment and humiliation, as he has not received salary for the past two months.

The English teacher, in his letter, also mentions that apart from delaying revoking his suspension, the VC had gone on record to publicly criticise the chancellor for his order, dubbing it "interference of the chancellor in his functions".

Thakur said: "The chancellor, after proper hearing in the quasi judicial proceedings, revoked my suspension with the date of its issue and directed the VC to notify it forthwith. The VC not acting on the chancellor's directive is an act of insubordination."

Attempts to contact Simhadri went in vain. Calls to his two mobiles went unanswered. But PU registrar Sanjay Kumar Sinha said: "The VC's office has filed a review petition with Raj Bhavan."

According to varsity sources, both PU and Raj Bhavan are flexing their arms over Thakur's suspension. They said at the PU annual convocation on August 20, the VC went on record saying that "the person whom he suspends, his suspension is revoked after nine years. The VC was giving example of a teacher at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), whom he had suspended, the teacher's suspension was revoked by Allahabad High Court after nine years. Simhadri had suspended the BHU teacher when he was VC at BHU between August 1998 and February 2002.

A PU teacher present at the convocation said: "We were stunned to hear the VC's statements made in presence of the governor."

The teacher said: "As per convocation minutes, Simhadri was to speak for 10 minutes but spoke for nearly 44 minutes. So Kovind, who had other engagements, had to cut short his speech. Kovind spoke for less than 10 minutes."