NUJS Kolkata’s vice chancellor (VC) Prof Ishwara Bhat now has a second loss-of-confidence petition signed against him by the law school’s student body in his career of six years at the helm at the West Bengal national law school.
According to our sources, 500 NUJS students had signed the three-page petition within the first two hours of circulation.
The petition had been drafted by the NUJS Student Juridical Association (SJA) and detailed the administration’s alleged failure to improve the law school’s infrastructure and many other issues.
The SJA has submitted the petition to the three-member judicial review commission that is understood to have completed the four-day-long review of the law school’s affairs today.
This is the first time in 16 years of NUJS’ existence that such a review has taken place, despite the NUJS Act stipulating that a review must be conducted every five years.
Student body resolves: “Complete loss of faith” in VC leadership
The current resolution, which was approved by “an overwhelming majority” of NUJS students on 18 September, expresses “utter dissatisfaction and complete loss of faith in the leadership of [Bhat]”, based on 17 grounds listed under heads such as transparency, academics, infrastructure, health and hygiene, financial embezzlement, curbing student liberties out of retribution, proposal to increase student intake and to open two new branches, and then the delay in forming the current review commission itself.
The commission was constituted on 21 July, 9 months after former Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur, as NUJS’ ex-officio chancellor, signed off on a resolution to constitute the 16-years-overdue review commission.
Commission concludes field-work today
The commission is headed by Prof Mohan Gopal, who is the director at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies Dehradun, with Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor Prof Faizan Mustafa and former Jammu University physics department head Prof Lalit Magotra as members.
The commission visited NUJS every day from 18 September until today, between 10am and 630pm, with one hour’s lunch break in between.
The members met with various stakeholders such as the VC, selected representatives of teaching and non-teaching staff, undergraduate student representatives, post-graduate student representatives, members of statutory bodies, of the bar and of the bench, parent representatives, civil society members, academicians, research centre representatives, alumni representatives, government officials and intellectuals.
The commission concluded its visits at 430pm today, according to the official schedule a copy (see picture above).
A scathing review commission report at Nalsar Hyderabad in 2012, which had been suppressed internally, strongly contributed to the resignation of its then vice-chancellor.
(Read more so-called Nalsargate coverage here).
Comments
The time for waiting is over. Too many years have passed. It is time to declare war.
Mohan Gopal: We are really impressed, professor. You are doing excellent work. Jai Karnataka!
Were submissions made? Or was this posted too late?
First improve own studies and discipline and then make accusation (such as regular study, attendance, attention in class, timely giving projects without extension, not copying from net etc).
http://www.firstpost.com/india/jindal-law-school-rape-punjab-and-haryana-hc-verdict-shows-little-has-changed-despite-verma-committee-report-4073653.html
I have got genuine inside information on developments, trust me. These are the developments:
COMMISSION REPORT:
1) The commission will issue a favourable report, with high praise of the college's performance over the past 15 years. High praise for Menon and MP Singh.
2) Nothing directly critical of Bhat, only a softly worded statement that it has received a petition from students. Plea to both students and Bhat to iron out their differences.
3) Recommendations like campus renovation, hostel expansion, website upgradation etc.
4) High praise of Bhat from the people he planted, which will be noted favourably.
BHAT'S PLAN:
1) He is staying, 100%. He will even get a third term.
2) Satellite campus of NUJS (offering diplomas and LLMs) to be set up in constituency of law minister (Asansol). Will be 100% funded by state government (instead of funding main campus).
3) Promotions for faculty who supported Bhat.
4) Two Trinamool leaders to be aded to EC.
5) Mamata Banerjee guest of honour (with CJI) at next convocation.
http://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/bombay-high-court-slams-state-government-for-not-providing-land-to-national-law-university/1141664
As a lowly first year student with not much of a voice, I find it is really strange how the NUJS community can be so meek Even without dharnas and class boycotts there can be powerful ways to unite the community and send a message to admin, such as:
a) Boycott convocation. For those in law firms, a day of leave from work saved as well.
b) Attend convocation but receive degree without shaking Bhat's hand. Only shake chief guest's hand. Make a public statement about this AFTER the event and get it published in the papers.
c) Attend classes with a creative sign pasted on wristbands or even t-shirts (e.g. "Not my VC", "We Want Justice"). Ask everyone to post that message on their hostel room doors, Facebook and Twitter profile pics and computer wallpaper.
d) Don't celebrate Saraswati Puja in January to protest insult to Goddess of Learning. Email Bhat, admin and all faculty about this.
e) Form an alternative governing structure. Register www.nujs.in and form a parallel website (an improved version of sja.nujs.edu). Make this the first search result on google. Start 2 or 3 SJA lecture series in different subjects. Invite accomplished alumni.
f) Send a mass email to all alumni.
g) Write a letter to educated MPs and MLAs from the ruling party who have studied at good universities in India and abroad (such as Amita Mitra, Prof Sugata Bose, Dinesh Trivedi, Mahua Moitra). Request their intervention. CC Bhat in the petition.
h) Use every occasion possible to register a protest, however small, and make Bhat known how much he is unwelcome.
I hope that you will consider my suggestions.
Who are the teachers you want exactly? The quality at almost NLUs is bad, barring a few at NLUD. And while some of the NLU alumni teaching at Jindal are stellar, they won't leave their law firm-style salaries and come to any NLU. Some of them even left teaching positions at NUJS and NALSAR to join there because of the pay.
I am not defending Bhat but let's be realistic.
Also, you need to read a post more carefully before commenting on it. I never said most NLu alumni teaching at NUJS aren't any good. I said two aren't much above average. There are at present 8 LL.B. graduates from NLUs teaching at NUJS in various capacity (25% of the total roster). Most of them are in fact doing fairly good jobs. I am not including LL.M. graduates here. Please also note that most of the alumni teaching at Jindal won't come back to NUJS not only because of the salary, but also because of the admin's stupidity and habit of stifling academic freedom and pulling down academic standards. There are several alumni who shifted to NLUD too and they don't get paid any higher there. They are just given the respect due to them and a good atmosphere to teach/research. That's all most academics need.
Renew the petition and contact alumni again, you will get many more signatures (as the alumni numbers have also grown since then).