Large numbers of HNLU Raipur students have been assembled overnight since 10pm yesterday outside of college, following the high court’s ruling that the 2014 extension of their vice chancellor’s tenure had been made illegally, as we had first reported yesterday.
The students, employing the hashtag #HNLUkiAzaadi on social media, are calling for the administration to “respect” yesterday’s judgment of the Chhattisgarh high court and “not allow Dr Sukh Pal Singh to continue as the VC of the university, as his appointment has been found to be illegal”.
“In light of the judgment of the of Dr Avinash Samal vs State of Chhattisgarh & Others, pronounced on 27.08.2018, Prof Dr Sukh Pal Singh has no legal or moral authority to continue as the Vice Chancellor of [HNLU],” the students submitted in a written notice to of demands.
“The Student body humbly requests you to officially acknowledge that as a consequence of the above mentioned judgment, Prof Dr Sukh Pal can no longer occupy the Office of the Vice Chancellor of the University.”
Student concerns in this could include Singh potentially appealing the high court verdict to the Supreme Court and in the meantime continuing to serve out the remainder of his five-year term until 2019.
According to one student source, 80% of HNLU students have been participating in the protests, which also call for reform of the hostel arrangements, with allegations ranging from discriminatory policies and personal vendettas against students by wardens who are also professors.
In particular, students have called for the administration together with the Student Bar Association (SBA) to reform the hostel rules in order to:
- implement hostel timings and curfews equitably across both male and female halls of residence,
- appoint independent wardens to the hostels who are not associated with academic or similar activities.
Students have given the administration a 10-working-day deadline to respond in writing.
We have reached out to Singh for comment yesterday and again today. He said he would not comment until he’s had a chance to study the high court’s judgment.
Of course, there is no guarantee that even if Singh departs the state government would appoint someone the students would prefer, with a case in point being the current stalemate in the administration at NUJS under its interim VC Amit Talukdar after the resignation of unpopular VC Ishwara Bhat.
Comments
1. Today HNLU has become premier legal institution and among top 8 to top 10 law schools of India. One cannot find other colleges in Chattisgarh with such record. For internship, placement, moot, foreign LLM etc student can say with pride "Hail Hidyatullah"
2. Prof Sukh Pal has played major role in this success. He has worked hard to make infrastructure, invite learned guest lecturer, improve reputation etc. Prof Sukh Pal has made special efforts to get good quality faculties.
3. One must appreciate there are many difficulties in stat eliseo Chattisgarh and competition from other law schools. So one must see in this light and spirit.
And that's part of the idea of having an open comments section on LI: that different viewpoints are expressed, rather than just having an amplified echo-chamber of the views of one's friends and other people one agrees with, as on Facebook for instance.
Drop in a line here if you wish to enlighten yourself with more information about the plight of the HNLU students.
Thanks.
This is the time for you guys to implement Best Practices at HNLU. From Library timings to other widespread reforms find out the best practices at other law schools and demand it from your administration and do not give in till you get your demands!
"the Vice Chancellor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office, or until he attains the age of seventy years, whichever is earlier, and he shall be eligible for re-appointment for a further terms till he attains the age of seventy years; (Provided that the Chancellor may require the Vice Chancellor after his term has expired, to continue in office for such period, not exceeding a total period of one year as may be specified by him.)"
The phrase you must read with emphasis is "he shall be eligible for re-appointment". It does not give him a right over other possible candidates to be re-appointed. However, 17 (iv) does not rule out (the importance of) the search committee.
Sukh Pal Singh's friends too, in the past, used to make similar arguments. It's a clear case of impropriety as the re-appointment was done 9 months in advance. Why was it done so? One fails to understand as to what was the urgency.
17. The Vice Chancellor:—
(i) The Vice Chancellor shall be a whole time salaried officer of the University.
(ii) the Vice Chancellor shall be appointed by the Chancellor from out of a panel of not less than three persons recommended (the names being arranged in the alphabetical order) by a committee constituted under clause (iii); (Provided that if the Chancellor does not approve of any of the persons so recommended he may call for fresh recommendatios;)
(iii) the Committee referred to in clause (ii) shall consist of three members of whom one shall be nominated by the Academic Council, one by the Chairman, University Grants Commission and one by the Chancellor and the person nominated by the Chancellor shall be the convenor of the committee provided that no person who is an employee of the University shall be nominated as the member of the Committee.
(iv) the Vice Chancellor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office, of until he attains the age of seventy years, whichever is earlier, and
he shall be eligible for re-appointment for a further terms till he attains the age of seventy years; (Provided that the Chancellor may require the Vice Chancellor after his term has expired, to continue in office for such period, not exceeding a total period of one year as may be specified by him.)
(v) the emoluments and other conditions of service of the Vice Chancellor shall be as prescribed by Regulations.
(vi) if the office of the Vice Chancellor becomes vacant due to death, resignation or otherwise or if he is unable to perform his duties due to ill health or any other cause,the Chancellor
shall have the authority to designate a Professor of the University to perform the functions of the Vice Chancellor until the new Vice Chancellor assumes his office or until the existing Vice Chancellor attends to the duties of his office, as the case may be.
- Veer Singh, NALSAR
- Bhat from NUJS
- NLIU Bhopal
- CNLU
- NLU Ranchi
- NLU Assam
Who's next?
To make matter worse the judiciary control them allowing no challenge to illegality.
I this case wrong appointment was made he continued for 4 years and no word about recovery of salary paid in the judgement.
The Chancellor or chief Justice comes for one day signs a minutes and no judge has guts to say he is wrong in the judgement.
Horrible someone needs to check.
Thanks to fearless journalist llike kian who report the true character of NLUs. The other websites like barandbench just report the judgements.
Please kian do something legal future is in bad shape.
1) Only done by couples and party-going students from rich families
2) Supported by Congress party as seen by public messages from Congress politicians
3) Bad language was used during protest against honest people who are supporting administration.
4) Zero interest in academics and studies.
5) Law firms have said they will not recruit from HNLU because of insult to VC (yes, he is still the VC for me and should have stayed).