JNU attendance row: Delhi HC reinstates five heads of various schools

Justice Rekha Palli also issued notice to the university and sought its reply on their plea which also challenged the legality of the 75 per cent attendance requirement

The Delhi High Court on Saturday reinstated a dean and four chairpersons of different schools and centres of learning in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after they agreed to follow the mandatory attendance requirement of 75 per cent decided by the varsity's academic council.

JNU had on March 14 replaced seven heads of the various schools and centres in the university for not following the mandatory attendance requirement a decision which the teachers challenged in the high court.

Those reinstated are Kavita Singh (School of Arts and Aesthetics), Uday Kumar (Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies), Dhir Sarangi (School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies), Pradip Kumar Datta (School of International Studies) and Sucheta Mahajan (School of Social Sciences).

The decision came on the plea moved by the five of them.

Justice Rekha Palli, while ordering their reinstatement, also issued notice to the university and sought its reply on their plea which also challenged the legality of the 75 per cent attendance requirement, besides their replacement as deans and chairpersons.

The court will hear the matter next on May 11.

The order came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the five petitioner teachers, said that the attendance requirement would be followed by them till the matter is finally decided.

He also said that while agreeing to follow the attendance requirement, they have not given up their challenge to the legality of the procedure followed to bring the norms into effect.

Central government standing counsel Monika Arora, appearing for JNU, told the court that the varsity has no objection to the reinstatement of the teachers as deans and chairpersons so long as they follow the attendance norms.

She said the attendance norms were fixed according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations.

She said the 75 per cent attendance was made mandatory in the wake of the dropout rate among students and the professors complaining of consistent absence by students.

The AC in its 144th meeting held on December 1 last year had made 75 per cent attendance mandatory for students.

In total, JNU has 13 deans and 38 chairpersons, besides five chairpersons of special centres.