On 11 August, Bar & Bench had reported that NLU Delhi political science associate professor Dr Maheshwar Singh had gone on a hunger strike, alleging that his application for professorship three years ago had not been considered fairly without having even been notified of rejection.

We have reached out to Singh who said that the strike ended on Thursday, 11 August, and that the matter was being settled internally.

“There’s been a consensus,” he said, adding: “There’s no ill will between me and the administration.”

Regarding the substance of his allegations, Singh declined to comment further, saying that it was an internal matter and, when asked, he clarified that there had been “absolutely no question” of the university having bullied or threatened him, or seeking to brush the matter under the carpet.

That said, NLU Delhi registrar, prof GS Bajpai, has sent us a message with the following statement: “The university does not have any official information about any such strike; no story is required.”

When we spoke to him on the phone earlier today, Bajpai declined to comment further beyond his statement that no official intimation of Singh’s strike had been received.

According to the Bar & Bench reported, Singh had alleged, based on RTI and FIR filings, that promotions at the university were not conducted fairly and that scrutiny committee head Prof KPS Mahalwar had “been implicated in a similar case where he recommended one of the candidates. As it turned out, the documents provided by the candidate were either false or made up”.

“My contention is that the recommendations of the Mahalwar Committee should be put on hold until the allegations against him are cleared,” Singh had said.

We reached out to Mahalwar last week by email but have received no response.

Reportedly Singh had been asked by the university to approach the courts, which Singh was unwilling to do since courts tended not to interfere in university matters and he did not have the “wherewithal” to go to court.