Aligarh (UP), Nov 6 (PTI) The wife of Aligarh Muslim University’s acting vice chancellor is among the final three candidates for the VC’s post, in the shortlist decided at a meeting on Monday of the AMU’s governing body chaired by the husband.
Acting VC Mohammad Gulrez’s wife Naima Khatoon, who is the principal of AMU’s Women’s College, got 50 votes of the members of the AMU Court.
The other two shortlisted candidates, M Uruj Rabbani (former dean of Faculty of Medicine, AMU) and Faizan Mustafa (noted jurist and former VC of National Law University, Nalsar), got 61 and 53 votes, respectively.
In a meeting of the university’s Executive Council chaired by Gulrez last week, the names of five candidates were finalised for sending to the AMU Court.
On Monday, this governing body pruned the list to three with the names of Furqan Qamar (former VC of University of Rajasthan and first VC of Central University of Himachal Pradesh) and Qayyum Hussain (VC of Cluster University, Srinagar) being dropped.
The three names will be sent to President Droupadi Murmu, who is the Visitor of the university and will pick one as the AMU VC.
Monday’s meeting was also chaired by Gulrez, who later briefed reporters about the developments.
Rabbani got the highest number of votes at 61, Mustafa received 53 votes and Khatoon 50, he said.
A senior AMU official said, “Normally, the Visitor picks the name of the candidate who secured the highest number of votes in the AMU Court. However, the Visitor is fully empowered to use his/her discretion to choose any of the three names. There are precedents.” If appointed, Khatoon will be the first woman to become the vice chancellor of AMU.
Some members of the Executive Council had objected to Gulrez presiding over last week’s Executive Council meeting. The objections were, however, dismissed.
University spokesperson Omar Peerzada had said, “The officiating vice-chancellor was not a candidate for vice chancellorship and can chair the meeting and there is no question of conflict of interest, as in the eyes of law, husband and wife are legally independent.” “Both the Department of Higher Education and the AMU ordinance (Executive) do not bar the spouse of a VC from participating in the voting process,” he had said. PTI COR SAB SNS DIV DIV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.