Former NUJS Kolkata vice chancellor Prof Ishwara Bhat, who resigned last month under student and state government pressure, will face an inquiry committee convened by NUJS Kolkata acting vice chancellor, retired Justice Amit Talukdar, it was resolved on 12 May.
According to the minutes of the 61st meeting of the NUJS executive council (EC), convened on 12 May, a committee would inquire into the “allegations” against Bhat, consisting of the current acting vice chancellor Talukdar, Justice Ashim Kumar Roy, advocate general Kishore Datta and the judicial secretary.
Bhat’s resignation took effect from 7 April, on the conclusion of the EC meeting, after relaxation of the requirement of one month’s notice on resignation, given the circumstances of his resignation.
All his financial emoluments, including the notice period salary, were directed to be released immediately.
Attendees
The meeting was attended by the following 14 members: Acting VC Talukdar, former Calcutta high court judge Ashim Kumar Roy, current Calcutta high court justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, Supreme Court justice Arun Mishra, West bengal law minister Moloy Ghatak, West Bengal advocate general Kishore Datta, NUJS treasurer Jishnu Saha, Tezpur University Prof Virginius Xaxa, Dr Anupa Guha Majumdar and NUJS professor Dr Anirban Mazumder, IIM Kolkata director-in-charge BN Srivastava, West Bengal education secretary RS Shukla, West Bengal judicial secretary Bibek Chaudhuri and NUJS associate professor Bikramjit De.
The Student Juridical Association (SJA) was also represented at the meeting and a fact finding committee comprising Talukdar and Datta was resolved to be constituted to look into the irregularities in the universities that the SJA had mentioned in a letter submitted one day before the EC meeting.
New administration search committee to be formed
The EC requested the chancellor for his nominee to chair the search committee for selection of Bhat’s successor at NUJS, and requested the West Bengal government nominate the other two members of the search committee at the earliest.
NUJS will also have a new acting registrar as it was resolved that the current acting registrar Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan would hand over the charge to Calcutta high court registrar general Madhumati Mishra.
The search for a NUJS’ next permanent registrar will also begin now, as it was resolved to advertise the vacancy subject to the decision of the high court in the writ filed by former registrar Dr Surajit Mukkhopadhyay against his dismissal.
NUJS faculty member Anupama Ghoshal will serve as the new assistant registrar (administration) and new accounts and finance officers are also to be appointed at the earliest.
Review Commission Report
Discussion on the review commission report was deferred to the next meeting of the EC, however it was directed that the actions to be taken and reports to be filed as recommended by the university review commission should continue.
Distance learning courses: To be considered
The EC did not have a conclusive view yet on the validity of various distance learning certifications provided by NUJS, which had been challenged in 2016 by advocate Pinaki Ranjan Banerjee in the Calcutta high court.
Since all private distance learning courses were currently kept on hold at NUJS, the EC resolved to maintain that status quo until further discussions on this subject.
Update 21 May 2018: We have reached out for comment to former SJA president Arjun Agarwal, who was present at the EC meeting. He said:
Decisions of the Executive Council and the Academic Council since the former Vice Chancellor, Prof. (Dr.) P. Ishwara Bhat demitted office last month have resulted in rebuilding student confidence in the University’s administration. We thank them for giving us patient hearing in their recent meetings.
The appointment of Justice (Retd.) Amit Talukdar has brought a breath of fresh air to the campus. Finally, the students are being heard by their Vice Chancellor. Under his leadership, the Executive Council and Academic Council have already been appraised of some of the very many serious matters that they might have earlier been kept in the dark about due to a concerted effort by the former Vice Chancellor and a few of his aides.
Resultantly, there are natural concerns surrounding the inability of internal Executive and Academic Council veterans in keeping these statutory bodies appraised of these very pressing matters. There is also no evidence to suggest that these aides advised the former Vice Chancellor against questionable and potentially illegal actions and ommissions.
We feel that Justice Talukdar, himself having served the Executive Council as an external member, is best placed to help bridge the information gap between various stakeholders and these Hon’ble statutory bodies.
We further thank the Executive Council for bringing changes in the Registrar (Acting) and AR (Administration) positions. Consequently, we expect a responsive, transparent and invigorated administration with a change of guard in both these vital positions in conjunction with the leadership of Justice Talukdar.
Comments
On the other hand, the state nomination can be a huge disadvantage for the SJA. But then again, the SJA can benefit if it is a very erudite and eminent nominee (e.g. Harvard Professor and TMC MP Sugata Bose, who introduced the NLU Bill in Parliament).
I think the SJA should do the following:
1) Apply pressure and ensure that the review committee recommendations are implemented both in letter and spirit.
2) Unite with other NLUs and lobby for National Importance status, to prevent domicile and caste quotas creeping in.
3) Occasionally issue polite threats that a VC has been kicked out by the SJA and they will not hesitate to do a repeat.
[img]https://d23xcmtliku0ki.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/anupama-ghoshal-kolkata24x7.jpg[/img]
https://english.kolkata24x7.com/biswa-bangla-a-company-owned-by-abhishek-banerjee-mukul.html/
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/mis-Political_Parties/Constitution_of_Political_Parties/ConstitutionOfAITC.pdf
Note: The confidence, often misplaced, with which law students 'generate' information, and the herd mentality with which they get upvotes on this website, is indicative of the rigour behind your academic endeavour. TMC was, and maybe is, a political party started by G.K Moopanar is Tamil Nadu.
Please share the letter.
With reference to the Centre for Regulatory Studies, there were no discussion in the EC as there were no written complaint with reference to administration and finance. However, all research Centres and research projects will be reviewed by this committee as decided by the EC.
The Centre for Child Rights is closed now due to non-renewal of agreement with UNICEF. The Centre for Regulatory Studies and other research projects are continuing.
[img]https://image.ibb.co/i1YH6T/Screen_Shot_2018_05_20_at_4_25_24_AM.png[/img]
Kyaa kehne tumhaare Bagheera. Ab question paper(s) ke baare mein aur batao.
1) Dr Anupama Ghoshal: In comparison to some of the other faculty members, she speaks English well and can receive parents and guests without embarrassing the institution. As an academic, she is certainly not a star, but she knows her basics well and topped one of the better universities in Calcutta. But on the other hand, she is the daughter of Mr Anup Ghoshal, who is a singer but also an MLA from the Trinamool.
2) Dr Bikramjit De: Graduate of Presidency, JNU and Oxford. Son of a famous historian. Again, speaks English well and is presentable, unlike some others. But on the other hand, is an open Trinamool supporter. Just see these tweets from him:
https://twitter.com/B_de2002/status/55553305245532160
https://twitter.com/B_de2002/status/141746231947952130
https://twitter.com/B_de2002/status/148715169462239232
https://twitter.com/B_de2002/status/150087596305948672
3) During Menon-Chimni-MP Singh's time, the EC had Supreme Court lawyers and eminent jurists from all over India. Gradually, the EC is being regionalised. The biggest proof of that was the domicile quota and the move to open two new campuses in Asansol and Jalpaiguri. Thankfully, the Review Commission recommended against it.
NUJS will not be left with more than half a dozen faculty members then.
Not that I blame students for that. Of course we would go for marks, that affects our results and our career. But then we should admit that getting good teachers and driving bad ones out isn't really a priority on our agenda.
Below are the screenshots of the first two chapters. I can share the full reports of all the chapters on We Transfer. Let's see if the SJA has the guts to do anything, or whether the protest about lack of faculty is just a giant sham and students secretly want unqualified professors who grade well.
And in any event you don't need Turn It In. Just download the thesis and see for yourself.
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If this is independently verified resignation should be immediately demanded.
@Kian: Since one of the faculty members is now in an admin position, does that mean as per your usual policy, she's fair game? :P
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I also invite the current students to add to this initial list.
Thanks
funny that you missed the rather particular professor & the politician from this list. or is it that you love them because they doll out all the marks you need?
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All these cant write shit, plagiarize. take like half the classes and know diddly-squat about their subjects. Not only should they be kicked out but they should be made to pay back NUJS for the wages received for the last few years
We have even RTI-ed the response sheets filled by students multiple times. PIB obviously never acted.
And it's convenient to defame us by raising questions as to our independence, as if we are the administrators, and have the solemn duty to ensure that we equally and fairly attack everyone in the first instance.
Well, at any rate, [...] might not be an honest academic. All of you are the scum that robs the very University that nurtured you.
No Jaiswal/MKS/SSC/NKC will be able to save you.
As a well-wisher, I'd suggest you guys leave without seeking any terminal benefits (in case you don't know what PIB is going through, the title of this article should help you get the drift).
It's indicative of your mindset when any person opposing your viewpoint is automatically a faculty or a sucking up student. Keep your wishes for those who need them. The fact remains that while the admin has never been protective or even reactive in the past few years to respond to student demands, getting PUB out is the one (and only) time we students have actually put our money where our mouth is. Never before nor after.
It is utopian to consider that all the students will boycott the course.
However, just because there is that selfish chunk who will opt for sham courses for easy attendance and marks, the SJA as a whole does not become selfish.
When the University does not provide you with good choices, I do not think students can be blamed for choosing sham electives with easier marking criteria. If taking these electives help in getting recruited and/or bringing laurels in extra curricular activities such as moots and debates where again the University hardly provides any help, can you really infer that choosing these electives mean that students do not care about teacher quality?
The students are smart and just make a prudent choice to take these electives as the best bargain the University offers. The same 60 students taking these electives would be glad to see such professors thrown out but only when the alternatives are better to the extent that they feel their academic interests are being harmed by still choosing sham electives.
The real tragedy is that our faculty is completely but shamelessly incapable of actually offering a respectable number of courses or teaching us properly while they continue anonymous slander here after being exposed by us.
This comment makes the petition appear all about Water Law which is untrue. It was the most minor point in the whole petition. It is due to the lack of the electives being offered that the students are being forced to request for courses such as Water Law.
Also note that the Academic Department or the University UGC did not even care to reply why any of the requests are not possible. Such is the state of the administration.
As for your point of admin apathy, I FULLY CONCUR. Which goes to show that the rot within the system was by no means limited to PIB alone. Every person currently making admin decisions in the university is either incompetent, or negligent, or apathetic. My question is, how long are we going to let them be such?
There are some faculty who are offering only a single course this semester as per the list sent by Academic Department of the courses being offered including courses offered to LLMs. If the faculty numbers are dwindling it is upon the remaining faculty also to take some extra efforts by taking at least two courses per semester. There was some potential there to increase the courses offered.
Your assumption about classes going till 8.30 PM is completely wrong. If you do some basic calculation, you will realise that even after decoupling a few elective courses classes will not go beyond 6.30 PM on any given day even when no classes happen on Saturdays. Thus, there was no reason to group all the electives. No student wants to attend classes that late too. This was a totally convenience based argument made by the teachers.
About faculty recruitment, I request you to read the SJA petitions. There have been constant demands of adding upto 20-25 faculty members to reach a 1:10 teacher-student ratio. Do you really think adding faculty recruitment in the email would have solved anything. That the administration would have suddenly woken up and recruited faculty. This is the least practical solution for the problem at hand in short term but I agree that is the the only viable solution in long term. I assume the future SJAs would also continue to push for faculty recruitment.
About letting the administration be, just read the article you are commenting on again, the students just got the head of the administration removed. Even the Registrar has changed after concerns raised by students and Assistant Registrars too. This means the top administration of the college is almost completely revamped. I do share the concerns about the appointment of the Assistant Registrar for Administration though. But unfortunately, even if that does not work out for the better, I do not see any steps whatsoever that the students can take. Maybe the students should demand themselves to be appointed at these posts. Only if that was possible, right?
It is just easier to throw the blame on the students. The students do not run the University. The first blame should lie on those who do.
The next VC will be even worse than PIB. Most likely he will be from Calcutta University and will be a state government nominee
Asansol Siliguri campuses will be cleared by the governing bodies
The handful of good faculty at present will leave. The worst will remain.
The two research schools at NUJS will stop. Probably [...], [...], will be made the heads and trash the centres. Has anyone seen the plagiarism in [...], [...], thesis?
Not a single of Mohan Gopal's recommendations will be acted on. Review report will be trashed.
NUJS will become the official No. 4 law school (Right now it is the unofficial No. 4)
Hey a&s company, ask these morons to carry on!!!
Good job thrashing the collective wisdom of the NUJS Executive Council.
Why don't you get someone to interview me?
You'll be surprised on how many specific and nuanced points I want to make.
In the meanwhile, however, please don't appeal to your own ignorance. If you want these letters right now, shoot me an email at and I'll email them to you immediately.
Also, obviously your oversimplistic understanding of this situation can't possibly account for the fact that this is just a general comment sought from me after the story was published and not an interview. At any rate, I didn't feel obligated to write a separate article instead of a general comment.
But I do strongly encourage you to get someone to interview me on the specifics so that the world can know what should have been public in the first place.
Lastly, I never indulge with anonymous commentators so this will be my second and last comment on LegallyIndia.
I understand that it must be convenient for you to baselessly attack not only the students but also esteemed members of the community who form these Hon'ble statutory bodies. But, I do expect you to engage more directly and openly in the future instead of doing it here.
Regardless, do remember to shoot me an email (glad to receive it from a throwaway email account as well) for our letters with specific allegations and hundreds of pages of annexures.
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As a student, I am yet to see any cogent action having been taken to improve our situation barring removal of the ex-VC and that's what I have said. Appointment of one faculty member against whom multiple student complaints have been made in the past in an administrative position really doesn't do anything to inspire my confidence, thank you very much.
Appeal to ignorance and oversimplification are distinct logical fallacies.
Why don't you email him for his petitions, or better still (if you're an actual student and not one of the faculty members left disgraced after his recent expose) raise it on internal email or social media forums?
First, many positive actions might have already been take place, including formation of the Search Committee, multiple inquiries including ones into the research centres you seem to assume are free from administrative maladministration. As the kid says, don't appeal to your own ignorance. For all we know, actions have been taken and duly recorded in minutes of the siad meetings. Unless you can upload those minutes here which you've definitely not accessed, you shouldn't comment on anyone's failure. Even I fail to see why you assume that this kid is obliged to answer you here.
Second, the students got the VC removed - all by themselves. Now you're expecting them to clean up everything already? All by themselves? Wow!
"All concerns have been taken cognisance of" - can one be vaguer than that? The question is, what is being done about it? Has advertisements been published? No. Have new teachers been recruited? No. Has any of the Review Commission recommendations been implemented? No. The only actual development seems to be replacing one interim registrar with another, putting a person of questionable record in an admin post, stopping an actively functioning research centre (resulting in withdrawal of UNICEF). I fail to see any positive development so far. When students see any, they will respond favourably, I'm sure.
Nobody said students have to clean up everything on their own, in fact Karan Arjun seemed to be a student himself. But before anything has actually been cleaned, to give the idea that it has been already done, does seem a tad populist. Arjun Ag claims to support the "collective wisdom of the EC members" and that the new interim VC "has brought a breath of fresh air". In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, one is perfectly entitled to question that. If he doesn't want to answer that, he could have chosen not to engage (or even not made the mostly useless statement to begin with).
It is no secret that many students would have a problem with raising it openly, because that would be seen as direct confrontation with the SJA (even an anon comment is receiving flak here). Who needs that grief within a small campus community? Can't blame any student for not doing that.
Karan Arjun might be a student, agreed. But if that's the case, at least s/he should raise such things in an internal forum, democratically, when the SJA is supposed to respond with their personal identifies attached to the replies.
Don't tell me that being a student, Karan is scared of Arjun guy, he has graduated - for God's sake.
Obviously, the only other possibility is that this Karan fellow is a coward who is definitely not a student. Probably one among VP, SB, RG, MM, AM or the gang - left pretty disgraced by SJA's representations in the AC on May 10. And definitely should be fearful of the Arjun guy who can still do a lot damage, especially now that he must have graduated.
My advise to them - please stop pushing through your stupid ulterior motives here by slandering a person whose finger nails have more integrity than all of you combined.
And, obviously, he doesn't have to reveal what he feels he doesn't need to reveal here, at this point, on account of your anonymous comments here.
SJA has already emailed detailed updates and progress to the students.
If you have an ounce of integrity, please "reply to all" there.
Otherwise do shut up!
No, you coward, you could have asked him why nothing else was accomplished in these meetings and he would probably have responded to your comments regarding AO/FO positions, Search Committee, etc.
Also, if you are an actual student, I don't get this sense of thanklessness either. Student representation itself is a thankless job. Especially in any organised and apolitical student body, the threat of persecution by the administration always looms large - at least it did in our times, when a few of us attempted to go against corrupt high ranking officials. And, it seems NUJS SJA for this edition is going down in history books for managing to chuck out the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar for corruption and inefficiency, within a span of a month despite its apolitical nature.
They have done so in a highly organised, non-disruptive and (must I add) inspiring manner for all such politically affiliated unions. There has been a full administrative rinse along with a historic number of external inquiries into matters at NUJS in the last Exec Council, where these guys represented you. Unless, of course, you expect your reps to be [i]genies[/i], I don't see how you can even say "could SJA have done more at this stage? Maybe, maybe not ".
All of this, or you must be a disgraced faculty member as a lot of previous comments strongly suggest. Very shameful, either way.
@Kian: If you choose to censor this comment too, then there's actually no use publishing the others in response, right? Because I have said all of this before and you still keep publishing vitriol in response. I see your vaunted publishing standard does not extend to censoring name-calling. Clearly shows the double standard.
Otherwise how did the Academic and Executive Councils allow him to weeks back?
So how is he former President, again?
he is not President anymore, or
he didn't update you with this exact comment internally while updating you (sometime recently) with the substantive updates, or
you're afraid you will be bullied?
The last one sounds like the most amount of crap, tbh.
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Laughable.
also note that all the so called good VCs that people keep mentioning here are really strict with the students and enforce a lot of discipline. Ask anyone at NLUD or former NALSAR students about Ranbir Singh's style of functioning. Menon was also no different. It seems to me that only benevolent dictators can produce good results.
And if you are so concerned about the rather particular professor, why not get some guts and sent these plagiarism reports to the administration on your own. Tag the SJA too.
Use a fake email-id. Have some guts. But I doubt that would happen. Otherwise you would have already done that rather than posting it here anonymously.
But if you do grow some balls and do it, then we will also see how serious the administration is about academic standards and the standards of the faculty it employs.
"Plagiarism" means an act of academic dishonesty and a breach of ethics. It involves using someone else's work as one's own. It also includes data plagiarism and self- plagiarism;
If any member of the academic community suspects with appropriate proof that a case of plagiarism has happened in any document, he or she shall report it to the competent/designated authority of the university. Upon receipt of such a complaint or allegation the university authority shall refer the case to the Academic Misconduct Panel (AMP) of the HEI who in turn shall submit a report to the Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA).
Penalty in case where the degree/credit has already been obtained - If plagiarism is proved on a date later than the date of award of degree or credit as the case may.be then his/her degree or credit shall be put in abeyance for a period decided by the AMP and PDA.
https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8864815_UGC-Public-Notice-on-Draft-UGC-Regulations,-2017.pdf
~ Professor NUJS-is-going-to-the-dogs
1. He/She must be Bangali
2. He/She must be state government crony or yes-man
3. He/She must be expert on how to plagiarize rather particularly (extra points for first hand experience)
4. He/She must be willing to open 2nd/3rd/4th campus
5. He/She must be harbouring anti-ICC policies
6. He/She must be fascinated by high status students and high-status daddy/mommy
Interested persons can apply by 2050 which is the deadline