Hours after Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani called for revoking the suspension of five non-teaching staff of the School of Open Learning (SOL) of Delhi University for “accessing her confidential files,” Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh denied issuing any suspension order.
Reacting to media reports that the university had suspended them for leaking her admit card for an examination as part of a course, the Minister tweeted: “Since DU is an autonomous institution, I have put forth my personal appeal to the V-C to reinstate the officials. In public life, one should be open to scrutiny and criticism. So am I.”
The Vice-Chancellor said: “There has been no suspension order issued to any employee of the university, although we view with grave concern the matter of leakage of information related to the personal records of any SOL student. Such documents are held in a fiduciary capacity and are not available to the public at large. Delhi University condemns such acts in the strongest possible words.”
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On Saturday, the media reported that five non-teaching staff members had been suspended as they accessed confidential documents and “leaked them” to a prominent Hindi daily. The action was confirmed by the university's media coordinator, Malay Neerav, on Friday.
The report said Ms. Irani had applied for admission to SOL only last year and had published her admit card as evidence. This ran contrary to affidavits submitted by her along with the nomination papers for the 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2004, she declared her educational qualification as “B.A. 1996 Delhi University (School of Correspondence).” But in the affidavit filed in the recent Lok Sabha election, she deposed that she had done “Bachelor of Commerce Part-1, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi-1994.”
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The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) described the “suspension” as “illegal and mala fide,” adding that information about the admission ticket was not confidential.
No show-cause“There is no evidence to establish that these employees shared the information with the newspaper. There has been no show-cause or inquiry. This was another knee-jerk reaction of the administration in its characteristic autocratic manner,” DUTA president Nandita Narain said.
The SOL Staff Association “welcomed” the appointment of Ms. Irani as a Minister, and condemned “attempts made by motivated elements” to harm her reputation. It demanded a fair and time-bound inquiry into the circulation of documents that provide information about her. SOL Staff Association spokesperson Janmejoy Khuntia said “exemplary punishment must be given to the culprits.”