Search Committee to nominate new VC for KU fails to hold meet
Srinagar: Despite the passage of over three months, the committee constituted to search for new Vice Chancellor (VC) of Kashmir University (KU) is yet to start its exercise.
Top sources said the three member search committee which was constituted in last week of September is yet to convene its first meeting.
The search committee constituted by the government for the appointment of new Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University is headed by Prof. D P Aggarwal, the former Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.
Other member of the search committee includes Prof. Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain, the current VC of the Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi along with Prof. Vinay Gupta the incumbent VC of the Sharda University, Noida.
The three year tenure of incumbent vice Chancellor will end on October 17, however sources say he can’t leave his chair till the committee replaces him with the new VC.
“There is an Act that incumbent VC cannot leave the chair till a new VC is appointed, so the present VC can hold the chair till search committee completes its exercise,” a top source said.
The government formed a search committee at a time when a legislation was passed by the same dispensation in 2015 in the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act, 1969 in the Legislative Assembly, mentioning therein that in the sub-section (5) of section (12) of the Act, the words “three years” shall be substituted by the words “five years”.
The amendments, brought in the J&K government gazette vide notification dated 7th April 2015, reads that the Act may be called the Kashmir and Jammu Universities (Amendment) Act, 2015 and shall come into force from the date of publication in the Government Gazette.
“In sub-section (5) of Section (12) of the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act, 1969, for the words “three years”, the words “five years” shall be substituted,” it reads.
It may be recalled that the present VC Kashmir University Professor Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi had assumed the charge of the VC in October 2014.
Meanwhile, if sources are to be believed, the search committee is likely to visit Kashmir and hold meetings with different stakeholders in Kashmir University.
“The committee may meet KUTA, KUMSA and other officers association,” the sources said.
KV Correspondent
