Shillong, Dec 09: The North Eastern Hill University refutes allegations on change of statutes by Vice Chancellor, Apropos the news items titled “NEHU VC’s move to change statute opposed”, “NEHU VC misusing term extension”.
The North-Eastern Hill University wishes to clarify that there is no illegal act committed by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. S.K. Srivastava as alleged by the Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association (MeTTA), North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) and Meghalaya Confederation for Academic Welfare (MeCAW).
In fact, the act of proposing to amend statute 2(A) (2) is to restore the earlier status that was in force during the time of former Vice-Chancellors like Dr. C.D.S. Dewanesan (1973-78), Dr. A.K. Dhan (1978-80), Dr. B.D. Sharma (1981-86), Prof. R.K. Mishra (1986-89), Prof. Iqbal Narain (1989-91), Prof. B. Pakem (1991-99), Prof. Mrinal Miri (1999-2005) and Prof. Pramod Tandon (2005-2010).
In 2011, during the incumbency of Vice-Chancellor Prof. A.N, Rai (2010-2013), the then Academic Council and Executive Council took a call to initiate the process to get the statute amended.
Now, the present VC wants to restore the earlier status which has worked fine right from inception till 2011 and that is why it has gone to the Executive Council and referred to the Academic Council for necessary steps.
Regarding the incumbency of the office/term of the Vice-Chancellor, NEHU, the earlier Statutes 2 (A)(2) of the University pertaining to the Vice-Chancellor are re-produced hereunder:
The Vice-Chancellor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office and shall be eligible for reappointment for not more than another term.
Provided that notwithstanding the expiry of the said period of five years, he shall continue in office until his successor is appointed and enters upon his office:
Provided further that the Visitor may direct that a Vice-Chancellor, whose term of office has expired, shall continue in office for such a period, not exceeding a total period of one year, as may be specified in the direction.”
Also reproduced below is Statute 2 (A)(2) after it was amended in 2011:
“The Vice-Chancellor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office and shall be eligible for reappointment for not more than another term.
Provided that the incumbent Vice-Chancellor will hand-over charge to the Senior-most Professor on the expiry of his/her term if the new Vice-Chancellor has not been appointed and is not available to take charge.
Provided further that the Visitor may direct that a Vice-Chancellor, whose term of office has expired, shall continue in office for such a period, not exceeding a total period of one year, as may be specified in the direction.”
From the above it is evident that there is no mala fide intention while taking all necessary steps by various statutory bodies of the University to initiate the process of restoration of the earlier or original statutes.
