If the report of a television news portal is to be believed, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has already started the process to find a replacement for present Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice Chancellor Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah, seven months before the expiry of his term. As per the report the ministry has written a letter to the university to initiate the process to find a replacement for Shah and also reminded it about the need to adhere to a clause of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
AMU VC has confirmed to the news portal about the receiving of the ministry’s letter and said he had sought legal opinion on the ‘UGC Regulations 2010’ that stipulates that Vice Chancellor of any central university should have 10 years of teaching experience besides being an academician. We are seeking legal advice on the adoption of UGC Regulations 2010, which we want to be examined first. We want to know if it is going to jeopardise our minority status, which is a very sensitive and important issue for us.
Shah clarified AMU had no problems with the regulation, which is a general instruction for all central universities. “We are only examining if it will prejudice our stand or not,” he said. AMU has a “distinct process” to select the VC and the university was working on constituting a new selection panel for the next Vice Chancellor, which would be over by November, he said.
As per the tradition of AMU, candidates for the VC position are shortlisted by the University's Executive Council, which sends a list of five candidates to the ‘AMU Court’. Here, the number of candidates is brought down to three in the order of preference and this list is sent to the President of India, the Visitor of the university, for final selection.
Shah’s appointment as VC in 2012 had been challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it violated the UGC Regulations 2010 since he is a retired Army officer and not an academic. His appointment was challenged in the Allahabad High Court by alumni Syed Abrar Ahmed, but the ruling went in favour of Shah. The court said there was “nothing wrong with the procedure”, but the petitioner had since challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court where the case is going on.
The latest HRD letter to AMU Registrar said that in setting up a panel for the appointment of new VC it should keep in mind the Supreme Court judgment in the Kalyani Mathivanan vs KV Keyaraj and Ors on March 11, 2015, “whereby it has been held the UGC Regulations 2010 are mandatory to teacher and other academic staff in all central universities and colleges and institutions deemed to be universities whose maintenance expenditure is met by the UGC.”
Also, regarding the “observance” of the UGC 2010 Regulations, the ministry has written to all central universities, “to adopt the UGC Regulations 2010 and carry out necessary changes in the statues.” Further, this ministry has written to the VC of AMU “regarding observance of the provisions of UGC Regulations 2010 while preparing the panel for appointment of new Vice Chancellor”, says the report.
