Khushi Bajpai
Published on: 05 August 2022 at 20:08 IST
The Delhi High Court was informed on by the University Grants Commission (UGC) that Jamia Millia Islamia had hired a professor in the department of history and culture in violation of the rules governing the minimal requirements for hiring teachers and other academic staff in higher education institutions.
In its request for the appointment to be reversed, the UGC informed the court that although the institution had published an advertisement in June 2021 for teaching posts in several departments, none of the applicants had been judged qualified, and the hiring process had been abandoned.
However, Dr. Nizam Hussain Al-Jafri was unilaterally assigned to the position of Professor on January 20, 2022, by this university’s vice chancellor, according to the UGC, who informed the court that this was against the rules from 2018.
The regulations clearly state that direct hiring for the position of professor in universities and colleges “shall be on the basis of merit through an all-India advertisement, followed by selection by a duly constituted selection committee as per the provisions made under these regulations,” according to the UGC, who claimed that the regulations are mandatory in nature.
The application was submitted as a part of an appeal against Jafri’s appointment. The nomination was contested earlier this year by Mohammad Javed Malik through attorney Iram Peerzada on the grounds that Jafri “does not possess a single day teaching and/or research experience in the subject of history, be it modern or ancient history.“
A Single Bench dismissed the petition contesting the appointment in February. The appeal Malik filed on July 15 is still pending, according to the division bench led by Justice Satish Chandra Sharma.
The verdict in the appeal was ready, according to the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, which called the UGC’s observation a “somersault.” The Court said:
“We won’t conduct the entire hearing. Only this issue will be investigated.
While asking Jamia to respond to the application and listing the application for hearing on August 30.