After the controversy over the delay in the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), the Registrar of the university on Saturday submitted his resignation from his administrative post.
Sources who attended the the 89th executive council meeting confirmed that Registrar O.V. Nandimath had tendered his resignation from the post.
They said he will, however, continue as a professor in the university.
Sources said Prof. Nandimath had not specified any reason for his resignation. Repeated attempts by The Hindu to contact him went in vain.
“As the convocation is scheduled on Sunday, the committee has accepted his resignation to the post with effect from October 1,” said a source. The university’s 27th annual convocation will be held on Sunday, which Prof. Nandimath will be officiating.
Prof. Nandimath is also administering a Chair on HAL Defence Public Sector Undertaking, Business Law, in the university. He had assumed the office of the Registrar on July 9, 2013 allegedly under controversial circumstances.
The resignation comes in the backdrop of the Student Bar Association’s (SBA) demand that he should step down as the ex-officio Secretary to the Executive Council, which carries out the procedural formalities related to the appointment of the V-C. They had alleged that the Registrar was delaying the appointment of the V-C.
Earlier this week, Sudhir Krishnaswamy was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the university, nearly two months after the previous V-C, R. Venkat Rao, demitted office.
Students of the university had boycotted classes and an end-term examination demanding the appointment of the V-C. The students called off the protest after an alumnus met with the Chief Justice of India (CJI), who had assured him that the appointment would be done shortly. Several alumni too had rendered their support to the SBA.
Many students who spoke to The Hindu welcomed the latest development. “He was the reason we carried out the protests. We believe that he was responsible for the delay in appointment of the V-C. More importantly, he was behind the recent decisions of charging Students’ Committees for using campus facilities, restrictions on usage of academic block, etc.,” a student alleged.
