New Delhi: In a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has demanded the removal of Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit over what it described as a “crisis of governance” and “lawlessness” in the institution.
In a detailed letter sent on 1 September, JNUTA urged the President to invoke her powers under the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act, 1966, to annul the termination of Rohan V.H. Choudhari, a faculty member at the Centre for Political Studies.
The teachers have written that there have been several serious problems with the functioning of the university for a while. However, they said, they had so far remained quiet hoping that the problems being faced by teachers, students and staff through processes within the university could be resolved peacefully.
The teachers further wrote that their efforts involved discussions and dialogues, but they did not lead to a solution and there was “institutional decline in one of India’s premier universities”.
Calling the termination of Choudhari a “tipping point”, the teachers wrote that no “due cause” for such an action was given. “It was a decision driven purely by personal vendetta and is additionally one more in a series of actions designed to send a signal to all teachers to accept her lordship over the University without question.”
The teachers further accused the Vice-Chancellor of systematically undermining the university’s statutory bodies and concentrating powers in her office. “What has been happening in JNU is a steady process of undermining all statutory bodies and processes of consultation, by an abuse of the powers vested in the office of the Vice-Chancellor,” the letter stated.
It alleged that decisions related to appointments, promotions, confirmations, allocation of housing, and even the functioning of statutory meetings were being taken unilaterally. Meetings of university bodies, the teachers said, were being held online despite repeated requests for physical sessions, only to “thwart real deliberation” and secure “rubber-stamp” approvals.
JNUTA also expressed concern over what it called a “carrot-and-stick policy” employed by the V-C to silence dissent among the faculty. The letter noted that while the association had refrained from commenting on Pandit’s past record of misconduct, her tenure at JNU had only deepened faculty disenfranchisement and eroded the institution’s democratic ethos.
“The dismissal from service of a teacher has made it clear that the V-C is not amenable to reason and will continue to make the university an instrument of pursuing her personal agenda,” the association said, urging the President to intervene and remove her from office.
ThePrint reached out to the JNU administration, but they refused to comment.
It all began when JNU terminated the services of Rohan Vekatesh Halapeti Choudhari, an assistant professor on probation at the Centre for Political Studies, citing “unauthorised absence”.
Choudhari, who joined the university in April 2023, had officially taken leave on 16-17 May but returned only on 8 July after 51 days, including vacation days. As per news reports, Choudhari informed the department chair about his extended leave only over the phone, admitting to have misread the academic calendar in an email sent on 24 July.
In the email, he had also cited family emergencies, submitting medical documents that were later rejected. In January 2024, he requested part of the absence be treated as earned leave, but the university instead issued a show cause notice on 1 August. After a personal hearing on 20 August, a committee ruled his response unsatisfactory and found him in violation of leave rules and Central Civil Services regulations.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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