In petitions to the President, who is the Visitor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University as well as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, members of the JNU Teachers' Association and the JNU Students' Union have pointed out that the UGC 2016, Gazette Notification adopted by the university is unconstitutional. They have pointed out that the adoption of the notification violates the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act, 1966, as well as The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation and Admission) Act, 2006.
Violation of JNU Act
They alleged that it is in violation of the JNU Act as the administration has violated the statutes, ordinances, rules and established processes of the university in adopting the UGC notification as the minutes of the Academic Council meeting were falsified as none of the matters relating to the change of admission rules were discussed in the 142nd AC meeting of the University.
They also allege that it is in violation of the Central Educational Institutions (CEI) Act, 2006 as the imposition of the UGC notification will result in a drastic reduction of seats for admission in 2017-2018 for most departments of JNU.
“Clause 5 of the Act says that the number of seats has to be fixed upon the date of coming into force of the Act, and cannot be reduced thereafter.” JNUTA said. “Since JNU is a research university with an integrated M.Phil/PhD programme, to which the UGC regulation cannot be applied mechanically, the interpretations of the regulation in the light of the JNU Act and the CEI Act is necessary.”
The teachers also added that the UGC regulations should not and cannot be applied in a manner that undermines the CEI Act of 2006. Responding to the constitutional validity of the UGC notification, Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar had said that the UGC notification had to be adopted by all central universities and it had been cleared by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development.
In a deadlock
JNUTA in a statement on Sunday said that there was no law and order situation in JNU and classes are taking place as usual. However, there were serious differences that the teaching and student communities have with the administration over the admission policy to be adopted for 2017-’18.
