Garhwal varsity V-C under HRD scanner

Ministry to seek President’s nod to send showcause to Kaul

THE HUMAN Resource Development Ministry is set to seek the President’s approval to serve a showcause notice on the Vice-chancellor of Hemvati Nanda Bahuguna Garhwal (HNBG) University — a central university in the poll-bound Uttarakhand — asking why he should not be sacked.

The ministry is learnt to have received complaints from the Central Vigilance Commission last year alleging administrative mismanagement by V-C Jawahar Lal Kaul.

A two-member fact-finding panel was set up, which found substance in over five allegations against him. Among other things, Kaul is accused of approving backdated affiliation to a few teacher training institutes. He is also accused of allowing the university to declare examination results of these institutes when the status of their affiliation to the HNBG University was under the scanner.

A proposal to serve a notice seeking Kaul’s defence will be soon dispatched to the President’s office, The Indian Express has learnt. When contacted for comment, Kaul denied the allegations against him.

“Yes, I presented my views to the fact-finding committee. The issue is not of backdated affiliation. The state High Court had ordered that the teacher training institutes had the right to permanent affiliation to HNBG University. So the university only allowed them to continue their affiliation from the time that it was deemed withdrawn. Since, the institutes had the right to affiliation, it was only natural for the university to also declare the results of the examination conducted by them. Some people are just trying to sully the image of the university with such complaints,” he said.

Jawahar Lal Kaul was appointed as V-C in November 2014, at the time when Smriti Irani was the HRD Minister, and has a little less than three years in office. He is the second head of a central university appointed during Irani’s term, who has come under scanner for irregularities after she moved to Textiles Ministry in July last year. The HRD Ministry, under her successor Prakash Javadekar, had issued a showcause notice to Allahabad Central University VC R L Hangloo for initiating a visitorial inquiry against him in August 2016. Hangloo was appointed in December 2015.

If the proposal against Kaul is accepted by President Pranab Mukherjee’s office, the ministry will serve him a showcause notice seeking his point-by-point rebuttal to all allegations. If dissatisfied with the response, the government could move a proposal to the President to sack him.

Kaul was the V-C of the Ujjain-based Vikram University when Kashmir was devastated by floods in September in 2014. He was manhandled by VHP and Bajrang Dal members when he issued an appeal to help organise relief for the flood victims.

Overall, he is the eighth central university V-C to come under the NDA government’s scanner since it came to power in 2014. Under Irani, the ministry fired the heads of Visva-bharati University and Pondicherry University on grounds of irregularities. Inquiries were also initiated against the IGNOU V-C, former head of DU and the Jamia Millia Islamia V-C. Her successor Javadekar moved the proposal for visitorial inquiry against Allahabad Central University and Aligarh Muslim University.

V-C Jawahar Lal Kaul