New Delhi: A professor of Persian from Gauhati University on lien to Jawaharlal Nehru University has been recommended for appointment as professor in the Delhi varsity's Centre for Persian and Central Asian Studies.

But before JNU's executive council (EC) could ratify his appointment, Mazhar Asif has been nominated to the same executive body by President Ram Nath Kovind in his capacity as Visitor.

Asif's appointment was recommended on September 28, while the President recommended him to JNU's EC on November 15. The recommendation carries his designation as a professor of Gauhati University.

Asif saidhe would recuse himself from the EC meeting on Thursday. "No rule has been violated. Of course I will recuse myself from the meeting where my appointment is (to be) discussed," he told The Telegraph.

JNU vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar did not respond to calls and messages.

An author of 19 books, including an Assamese-Persian-English trilingual dictionary, Asif has headed Gauhati University's Persian department where he started teaching after doing his PhD in Persian from JNU.

He is on the committee that is drafting the National Education Policy and was part of an audit that recommended that the word "Muslim" be dropped from "Aligarh Muslim University" and "Hindu" from "Banaras Hindu University".