Jamia Millia Islamia gets its first woman V-C, President approves Najma Akhtar for post

Najma Akhtar is a member of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. President also appoints V-Cs to two other varsities.

Jamia Millia Islamia main campus | Commons

New Delhi: The Jamia Millia Islamia, for the first time in its history, will be headed by a woman vice-chancellor as President Ramnath Kovind has given his approval to a proposal from the HRD ministry to appoint Najma Akhtar to the post.

The ministry, looking appoint V-Cs to Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi), Mahatma Gandhi Central University (Motihari, Bihar) and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (Wardha, Maharashtra), had sent nine names (three for each university) to the President, who in his capacity as the visitor of the central universities gives his approval.

“We received approval from the Visitor for the appointment of three vice-chancellors,” a senior HRD official told ThePrint. “For Jamia Millia Islamia, Najma Akhtar has been appointed, while approval has been granted for professor Sanjiv Kumar for Motihari and Rajneesh Kumar Shukla for MGHAV,” the official said.

“We will be issuing letters for the formal announcement,” said another official.

The ministry sent the names of the three shortlisted candidates for the top job at Jamia, after Talat Ahmad quit as V-C last year, said the official.

The three included Akhtar of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, Furqan Qamar, secretary-general of Association of Indian Universities, and S.M. Ishtiaque, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

The ministry had earlier sought the permission of the Election Commission (EC) on whether it could go ahead with the process. The Commission had given its approval to the Modi government to appoint the vice-chancellors.

Objection to appointments

Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia had last week urged the EC to not permit appointments to Delhi University colleges, funded by the state government, while the model code of conduct is in effect.

He made the appeal in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, a day after the HRD ministry sought the poll panel’s nod to conduct hiring for central universities despite the poll code, citing the delay suffered on account of the quota formula imbroglio.

In the letter, Sisodia pointed to the fact that several colleges currently don’t have governing bodies, the college-specific groups that handle matters related to appointments, and are mandated to include representatives of the city-state’s elected government (currently, led by the Aam Aadmi Party) as well as the respective institute.