The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a restraining order to the Delhi University Teachers' Association, asking it not to obstruct the ongoing admission procedure.
The DUTA had issued a call to all teachers to dissociate from the admission process on account of their dissatisfaction with the manner of implementation of the semester system in under-graduate courses.
In a statement, the DUTA said the appeal to teachers to dissociate from the admission process still stands. It claimed that it had “never appealed to teachers to obstruct the admission process in any manner whatsoever,” it had only appealed to teachers to dissociate from admission work.
Following the DUTA call, 53 colleges have decided to dissociate from the admission process.
The DUTA is unhappy with manner in which semester-based science courses were implemented by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deepak Pental in alleged violation of the University, Acts, Statutes and Ordinances. There is also frustration with failed attempts at dialogue with the V-C with regard to the feasibility of the semester system.
Delhi University Academic Council member, Dr. Abha Dev Habib said: “The penchant of the V-C to go to the court time and again is an attempt to wrest away our right to struggle. It shows that he is a bad administrator and he should resign.”
The matter of DUTA's refusal to submit internal assessment marks too had been raised in court by the university. The teachers subsequently submitted the internal assessment marks.
Speaking about the current restraining order, University Deputy Registrar(Legal) M.A. Sikandar said: “The order states that keeping in mind the careers of a large number of students, it is ordered that until the next date of hearing which is on August 16, defendants (DUTA) and the other office-bears are restrained from obstructing the admission process in whatsoever manner. An order of the copy has been circulated to all the colleges.”
“Apart from the teaching duties, teachers are also supposed to see to admissions. There are 54,000 seats at stake and the lives of students cannot be played with. If the DUTA does not obey the order, it will amount to contempt of court. This is the opinion of the university,” he added.
“It is not in the purview of staff associations to decide on the admission process. The staff councils consisting of all teachers of a college and with the Principal at its head can take a decision in this regard. But staff council meetings have not been called, only staff association meetings have been held,” Mr. Sikandar said.In the event of teachers not participating in the process of fixing admission cut-offs, many colleges will use last year's cut-offs for this year as well.
