Scrap fact-finding panel, Delhi teachers union asks VC

Close on the heels of the Delhi University setting up a fact-finding committee, its teachers' association on Friday asked outgoing vice chancellor Dinesh Singh to immediately scrap the panel.

The panel was constituted by the University of Delhi to examine complaints against Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) president Nandita Narain. It has served a notice to Narain, asking her to depose before the committee on October 19.

The teachers' association, which met here on Friday to discuss the notice, blamed Singh for conspiring against its president.

Narain, a mathematics professor at St. Stephen's college, was leading a campaign to demand Singh's removal from office over allegations of financial and administrative irregularities.

The DUTA cautioned Singh on the matter and asked him "to withdraw the fact-finding committee against her with immediate effect, failing which he would be held responsible for provoking widespread unrest and instability in the university".

It unanimously condemned the vice chancellor's "dastardly and conspiratorial attack" on Narain for discharging her duties as the elected representative of the teaching community.

"The attack on Narain is an attack on the DUTA as an institution of the academic community," DUTA vice president C.S. Rawat said.

The DUTA executive also resolved to write to the ministry of human resource development to intervene in the matter, he added.

The teachers' association will also hold a joint teachers-students protest meeting outside the DU viceregal lodge on Monday.

Earlier, DU-affiliated institutions such as Kalindi College, Deshbandhu College and the School of Open Learning (SOL) had complained to the university administration that Narain was interfering in their functioning.

In May, the university wrote to St Stephen's highlighting the complaints against her, but the college contended that the charges were not specific to the colege. Therefore, DU would be the appropriate authority for initiating any action in the matter.