HC quashes Panjab University’s decision to revoke ex-senator’s registration

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed the decision taken by Panjab University (PU) in 2019 to revoke the registration of a former senator, Munish Verma, as graduate constituency member, which allows former students to elect and contest polls for the varsity’s apex governing body.

Verma’s registration was cancelled and he was barred from participating in future senate elections after being indicted of wrongfully hiring three persons as centre and assistant superintendents in the 2014 annual examinations at MR Government College in Fazilka, Punjab.

The high court, however, upheld PU’s decision to constitute a committee to probe the 2014 incident and its report observing that Verma has not been able to establish on what means he is entitled to seek quashing of these decisions. He had approached high court in February 2020 challenging all these decisions. He claimed he had been a whistleblower regarding certain major and important issues pertaining to the varsity, and that was ‘primary cause’ of this victimisation.

The high court bench of justice Fatehdeep Singh said that as per PU Act, a person’s name can be struck off from the register of registered graduates with the concurrence of not less than twothird members of the senate.

However, there were total 91 members, two-thirds of which comes to 61; but, when the decision on revoking registration was taken, only 38 members were present. Hence, quorum of the meeting was not complete.

The court also observed that the varsity in its May 2019 proceedings acted in “undue haste to accomplish their designs” to ensure that Verma is thrown out of the senate “by all ways and means”. “What one can concur is that the respondent authorities, perturbed over the conduct of the petitioner, are trying to curb freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 to the petitioner,” the bench observed, referring to proceedings of senate. The ‘fraud’ had came to light on April 4, 2014, when a flying squad of the university visited the examination centre and recommended removal of all three who were appointed illegally.