Jawaharlal Nehru University's Academic Council meeting on Thursday which continued well into the late hours of the night was adjourned on the issue of reservations for teachers from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes beyond the assistant professor level.
Dean of School of Computer and Systems Sciences and AC member Prof. Sonajharia Minz said: “The meeting was adjourned inconclusive and it was disappointing that no decision could be arrived at with regard to reservations of teachers.” Another AC member, Prof. Aditya Mukherjee, said: “The issue was a highly polarised one with no consensus emerging.” One of the items on the AC agenda was consideration of views of various JNU Schools and Centres on the Prof. Pushpesh Pant Committee recommendations to review their existing structure. About the proposed upgrading of the Centre of Indian Languages to a School of Indian Languages, Centre of Indian Languages chairperson Prof. Chaman Lal said: “Some AC members did not react favourably to the idea. The matter was supposed to be looked into by a special committee constituted by the Vice-Chancellor. But the Centre is being treated in an underprivileged manner. The importance of Indian languages should be recognised.”
Speaking about meeting, Vice-Chancellor Prof. B. B. Bhattacharya said: “The meeting was adjourned as more discussions are needed. Regarding OBC admissions, we will look into the experience of other Central universities and also look at the admission statistics of all categories in JNU following which we will take a comprehensive decision. The Deans' Committee will decide the OBC cut-off and other issues related to OBC admissions.”
