Chandigarh: The central government’s decision to dissolve the Senate and Syndicate of Panjab University and replace them with nominated bodies through an executive notification has triggered a political and academic uproar in Punjab.
The 28 October notification amends the Panjab University Act, 1947, reducing the university’s top governing body from a 91-member body to 24, while abolishing the graduates constituency completely and replacing its elected Syndicate with a largely nominated structure.
The move comes almost a year after the Senate’s term ended 31 October last year and no move was made to hold fresh elections—a delay that many political leaders and faculty members had warned were a precursor to such an overhaul.
Apart from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), all political parties have vociferously criticised the move claiming that the move has diluted the state’s stake in the university. Students protested in the campus Saturday during the global alumni meet.
As protests mount, ThePrint explains why what was once an academic governance issue has become a flashpoint in the broader Centre–State tussle over federalism and how the future of one of India’s oldest universities now hangs in the balance.
PU’s unique structure
Established in 1882 at Lahore, Panjab University is one of the oldest universities in India. When India was partitioned during independence, the university was also split with a new campus coming up in India.
Following the Partition, the university was “established” and “incorporated” once again under the 1947 Act passed by the East Punjab legislature. The Panjab University Act is the governing statute of the university.
PU functioned as a state university with affiliated colleges spread across the then joint Punjab region which included the current states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Its centre moved from Shimla to Rohtak to Jalandhar before it finally got its campus in Chandigarh.
In 1966, when Punjab was reorganised into the separate states of Punjab and Haryana (Himachal Pradesh had already been carved out as a union territory in 1956), PU became an ‘inter-state body corporate’ under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, passed by Parliament.
However, even though the university came to be controlled by the Centre, Punjab continues to hold a major stake. As an inter-state body corporate, PU does not have the status of a full-fledged central university. Unlike central universities, where the President is the ex-officio ‘Visitor’, the Vice-President is the ex-officio chancellor in the case of PU.
The funding, too, is shared between the Centre and Punjab. The university has 202 affiliated and six constituent colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh, besides four regional centres at Muktsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Kauni. In addition, there is an Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies at Hoshiarpur.
Also Read: Punjab’s war on drugs fell victim to abuse. 8 years on, an overhaul begins
The modifications
The Gazette notification invokes Section 72 of the 1966 Act, which empowers the Centre to modify state laws governing inter-state institutions through “exceptions and modifications.”
Under the revised Section 13, the Senate will consist of no more than 24 members (referred to as ordinary fellows) replacing the earlier 91-member structure, of which 47 were democratically elected.
The downsized Senate will have a mix of nominated and elected fellows. There will be an additional seven ex-officio fellows.
Overall, two will be eminent alumni nominated by the Chancellor, while two professors and two associate or assistant professors will be elected from the teaching departments of the university. Four principals of affiliated colleges and six teachers from affiliated and constituent colleges will also be elected, while the Punjab Assembly Speaker will nominate two MLAs provided they hold a degree from any university. The remaining six will be chosen by the Chancellor from among persons of eminence or with academic distinction.
The ex-officio members of the Senate will continue to include the Punjab chief minister, the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the state education minister and the education secretary. However, the chief secretary and secretary education Chandigarh, as well as the Chandigarh Member of Parliament are new entrants to the Senate.
The notification adds that the election of all the ordinary fellows will have to be approved by the Chancellor and their term will be fixed at 4 years. Ordinary fellows who have vacated their office can be renominated.
The most controversial move is the complete abolition of the graduates constituency. In the previous 91-member body, there were 47 elected fellows of which 15 were elected by the PU graduates registered as Senate voters.
As the electorate includes all those who have graduated from PU, it ran into lakhs with fresh graduates added each year. The voters’ list was revised every four years ahead of Senate elections.
The Syndicate, the university’s executive arm, has also been restructured. The earlier 15-member body elected from among the Senate fellows will be replaced by a smaller, largely nominated body comprising the Vice-Chancellor (as chairperson), the Secretary of Higher Education, Government of India, the Directors of Public Instruction of Punjab and Chandigarh, one Senate member nominated by the Chancellor.
The V-C will nominate the other 10 members—including deans, professors, associate professors, assistant professors, principals and teachers from the university and its affiliated colleges—on a seniority and rotation basis.
How it began
In February 2021, the then PU chancellor M. Venkaiah Naidu constituted an 11-member governance reforms committee to suggest changes at PU in view of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
During the hearing that year, the university informed the high court about the constitution of the committee while explaining the need for downsizing the Senate and the Syndicate.
“As compared to central universities, IITs, IIMs and state-run universities, the size (91 members) and the composition as well as the process of constituting the Senate and the Syndicate in the PU is far more complex, time-consuming and cost-intensive,” PU informed the court.
“Adding to this is the manner in which deans are elected rather than being chosen for academic excellence… if the PU has to achieve its innate potential and grow into a front-ranking university, it is imperative that it should streamline its governance system.”
The university batted for a lean and efficient governance structure and suggested a panel be formed to examine the governance structure and to give suggestions. In July 2021, the committee submitted its report and recommended downsizing the Senate and the Syndicate.
In a press statement, the PU gave the rationale behind the move. “Such a constituency (graduates) does not exist in any university in Punjab. The reason for this (recommendation) is that the election process of this constituency is a very complex and cost-intensive exercise. In Panjab University, it involves more than 3.5 lakh voters spread across the five states of Punjab, Haryana Himachal, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and two union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.”
“Moreover, the concept of having registered graduate constituencies in universities was relevant only till the 1960s when PU was conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations. However, ever since the constitution of Punjab State Education Board, such examinations do not fall in the purview of universities, therefore in the contemporary education system, the concept of registered graduates’ constituency is no more relevant,” it added.
For the Syndicate, the committee suggested that instead of elected members, they be appointed on the basis of seniority by rotation so that teachers from PU campus, regional centres, affiliated colleges including principals get equal opportunity to participate in governance.
It was also suggested that colleges situated in close proximity to PU may continue their affiliation, while those far away can switch to other universities.
Why the protests
The changes represent a complete overhaul of PU’s governance model. Until now, the Senate was a broad-based representative body, nearly half of whose members were elected through a complex but highly participatory process for decades.
The abolition of this system marks the end of that tradition involving lakhs of alumni, teachers, and principals across North India. The abolition of this system marks the end of that tradition.
The new structure allows for little electoral representation and concentrates power in the hands of the Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor, both of whom are directly connected to the central government.
The elections to the 15 fellows of the graduates constituency was an elaborate affair with polling booths spread across northern India in Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. Majority of elected members were from Punjab. Booths were set up based on the number of voters. The rest of the elected fellows were chosen by teaching faculty and principals from affiliated colleges across Punjab and Chandigarh.
In contrast, the new Senate is reduced to an exclusive body of just 24 ordinary fellows and the scope for elections to a handful of seats. Most members, including those termed ‘persons of eminence,’ will now be nominated by the Chancellor, effectively giving the central government decisive control over the university’s supreme governing body.
Similarly, the Syndicate has been turned into a nominated administrative council. It will no longer be accountable to an elected Senate but will instead operate under direct executive authority. Elections have been eliminated altogether, and decision-making will flow top-down from the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor.
This means that what was once a three-tiered democratic governance system—with checks and balances between the Senate, Syndicate and Vice-Chancellor—has now been replaced by a centralised administrative hierarchy dominated by nominees of the Centre.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: How handover of Guru Gobind Singh’s ‘Jore Sahib’ has put spotlight on scattered relics of Sikh Gurus