A young faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) could face disciplinary action for what the administration has described as “unauthorised absence” — a proposal placed before the university’s Executive Council (EC) at a meeting on Tuesday, The Indian Express has learnt.
In a statement on Tuesday, the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) said that the EC had been asked “to consider the recommendation of another Committee to take disciplinary action, and under the CCS (Conduct) rules at that, against a young faculty member at the beginning of his career for allegedly unauthorized absence.”
The teachers’ body strongly opposed the move, insisting that the case had been inflated without justification. “There is absolutely no basis or grounds for any such action, as the issue at hand was no more than an inadvertent omission on the part of the faculty member, involved no dereliction of duties as a teacher, with personally difficult circumstances arising from family medical emergencies serving as a mitigating factor,” it said.
The association also alleged that Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit had pursued the case out of animosity. “The faculty member concerned, however, is not the beneficiary of the largesse of the VC and instead is a target of her personal vendetta,” the JNUTA statement said, adding that the matter had reached this stage only because of her “consistent exercise of discretionary powers to refuse to see reason to thwart any resolution of the issue permissible within the rules for over a year, and to ‘fix’ him, that the matter has come to this point.”
The teachers’ body said that a committee was constituted to look into the case and, within a week, disciplinary action was recommended that the EC was to deliberate on Tuesday. This swiftness, it argued, stood in contrast to the inaction of other committees dealing with “pressing faculty grievances”.
“The swift action of a Committee, within a week of its constitution, to escalate the matter to the level of disciplinary action against a young colleague, stands out in sharp contrast to the complete paralysis for over a month of another Committee with the same Deans,” the JNUTA said.
The association described the EC’s deliberation on Tuesday as “the final act of a charade”, with the recommendations of the committee placed for the EC’s consideration.
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The Indian Express tried to reach out to the university’s media relations office and V-C Pandit, but received no response.
