An illegal attack on university's autonomy

Updated on: Monday, August 15, 2011

Eminent historian Irfan Habib and academicians of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have described a recent letter from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to the AMU's Vice Chancellor — which sought to restrain him from taking any policy decisions and making appointments or promotions until he demitted office early next year — as an attack on the university's autonomy.

“Total disregard”

“We hold that the letter of the Ministry constitutes an illegal attack on the autonomy of the University and shows total disregard of the immediate and long-lasting effects on the teaching and functioning of one of the major institutions of higher learning in the country,” they said in a joint press statement.

The signatories to the statement are: Professor Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus, AMU; Professor M. Saleemuddin, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor; Professor Wasi Haider (Physics); Professor Ramesh Rawat (Hindi); Professor Shireen Moosvi (History); Professor S. Imtiaz Hasnain (Linguistics), Professor S. Alim Husain Naqvi (Applied Physics) and Professor Shamir Hasan (West Asian Studies).

The following is the text of their statement:

“Our attention has been drawn to a letter by an Under Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, issued on 10 August, directing, in the name of the President as Visitor of the University, that the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University is ‘restrained from making any appointment and promotion, as also from taking any policy decision' pertaining to ‘the executive and academic functioning of the University', until he demits office on 17 January 2012.

“It is strange that the letter does not refer to any provision in the Aligarh Muslim University Act or any other law by which the Visitor has such a power to violate the University Statutes and block the normal functioning of the Aligarh Muslim University. For instance, teaching in some courses cannot be carried out without teachers' appointments and a large number of teaching posts under the 11th Plan would lapse if they are not filled by selection within this year. Despite such destructive consequences of the order, the Ministry has apparently not informed the Visitor that under the Aligarh Muslim University Act the order is patently illegal. Section 13 of the Act provides that no order of the Visitor giving any direction to the Aligarh Muslim University can be made without the Visitor first calling ‘upon the University to show-cause why such an order should not be made, and, if any cause is shown within reasonable time, shall consider the same' [Sec.13 (6) Proviso; also Sec.13, Clauses (2) to (5)]. The Ministry's letter does not refer to a show-cause notice nor to any reply of the University thereto, because no such notice has in fact been served.

“We hold that the letter of the Ministry constitutes an illegal attack on the autonomy of the University and shows a total disregard of the immediate and long-lasting effects on the teaching and functioning of one of the major institutions of higher learning in the country.

“We particularly request Members of Parliament to intervene and ensure that the government strictly obeys the law legislated by Parliament and abides by its provisions.”

An illegal attack on university's autonomy

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