JNU professor sacked: Teachers’ body seeks VC’s removal

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Monday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, the Visitor of the university, seeking the removal of Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit and annulment of the termination order against a probationary faculty member, terming the decision “illegal.”

According to university sources, the matter was placed before the Executive Council (EC) in its recent meeting, where it was decided to sack the faculty member.

The minutes recorded that the probationer had been on unauthorised leave for 51 days, in violation of service rules, and his performance was found unsatisfactory.

“The probationer accepted his mistake in writing. What is wrong in taking action against wrongdoing?” a senior official said, adding the decision was in line with service conditions governing probationary appointments.

The JNUTA, however, has challenged the action, telling the President that it reflects a “tipping point” in what it described as the VC’s steady undermining of statutory processes and concentration of power.

“The Vice Chancellor in dismissing from service a young faculty member of the University, without there being any due cause for such action and without any due process being followed,” it alleged.

The association’s letter further complained that statutory bodies had been undermined, with meetings being held only in online mode “because such meetings are more easily ‘managed’ to thwart any real deliberation and to rubber stamp the decisions already made by the VC.”

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In a separate communication to the vice chancellor, the JNUTA said its “dwindling hope has been irreversibly dashed by your vindictive and wholly illegal decision to terminate one of our colleagues.”

It added, “Most importantly your actions have betrayed a shocking lack of humanity and morality, where teachers are treated as no more than pawns in a game of pursuing selfish personal goals.”

The teachers’ body also claimed that the EC’s decision was pushed through without proper discussion.

“Set against this was the dissent of the three elected teacher representatives, which they insisted on putting down in writing even though two of them were also not allowed to speak,” the association alleged.

The JNUTA has sought an opportunity to meet the President personally to explain its position, warning that the episode has deepened faculty discontent and eroded trust in the administration.