TIA NEWS / NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court today put a question mark on the appointment Zameeruddin Shah as Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, AMU.
Shah who happens to be a former Lieutenant General of the Indian army but has no academic qualification.
The apex court asked why a person of non-teaching background was appointed the Vice Chancellor of a prestigious University.
The apex court posted the matter for hearing on September 26.
Slamming the AMU authorities, Justice Thakur said, “You are doing two wrongs. One that you have appointed someone without proper qualifications and then there is a defiance on your part.”
“If the whole country is following UGC regulations then why not AMU if it is a central university. Tomorrow you will bring in some police officer and appoint him as VC.”
Shah’s appointment was challenged in the Allahabad High Court. The high court, however, had found no fault in the appointment. The high court order has been challenged in SC by one Abrar Ahmed.
“You (AMU) are a central university. UGC regulations apply to you as they are mandatory. The VC must be an academician and he should be a person who has worked for at least 10 years as a professor in a university. If every other central university follows the Regulation why can’t AMU? Why to appoint a former army officer? We are not questioning his abilities. We are on the question whether his appointment is as per the UGC Regulations,” a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and A M Khanwilkar said.
The observation came during hearing of a plea challenging the appointment of AMU’s Vice Chancellor Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah on the ground that according to the regulations of University Grants Commission (UGC), the VC ought to have worked for at least 10 years as a professor in a university or on an equivalent post in a research or academic institution.
Appearing for petitioner Syed Abrar Ahmed, Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, said the UGC regulations, which pertain to minimum qualifications and maintenance of standards in the higher education, had become binding on the AMU when it had adopted these on December 6, 2010.
Referring to Kalyani Mathivanan’s judgement, he said Shah was a retired army general and
had no academic qualification as mandated by UGC Regulations, 2010.
The UGC Regulations make it explicitly clear that “the Vice Chancellor should be a distinguished academician with a minimum of 10 years of experience as professor in a university system or 10 years of experience in an equivalent position in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organisation,” Bhushan said.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for AMU, opposed the submission and said UGC Regulations were only meant for teachers in central universities and not for appointment to the post of VC which is the post of an officer.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Shah, referred to section 26 of UGC and said AMU is a minority institution.
He said the alleged non-compliance of Regulations could lead to stoppage of funds granted by the UGC but the terms of appointment of the VC cannot be dictated to the university.
AMU VC Zameeruddin Shah was appointed disregarding the UGC regulation 2010 which clearly states that a Vice Chancellor should be an academic with minimum ten years of experience. Shah holds just a post graduate degree, that too from an Army college.