The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) welcomes the Hon’ble Delhi High Court’s Order, on a petition filed by Law Faculty Students, restoring the privilege, as per law, of the Delhi University’s Academic Council to decide upon the issue of ‘special chance’ to be given to students who have not been able to complete their degrees in the stipulated time for extraordinary reasons. This privilege, though enshrined in the Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations of the University, had been summarily withdrawn by the University Administration through an illegal Notice which had been issued by the University’s Registrar last month. The Notice had dashed the hopes of those students who had already applied for a ‘special chance’ in order to sit for the examinations and complete their degrees. The University enrolls many students who come from financially weak and unstable families and are forced to temporarily discontinue their studies in situations of emergency and hardship. The High Court’s Order, issued yesterday, has brought relief for such students who will now be able to sit for their examinations while the Academic Council will get the opportunity to decide, as per the existing Ordinance, each case on the basis of individual merit.
The DUTA has been vocal in protesting against the arbitrary withdrawal of the provision for ‘special chance’ as it was yet another step through which the DU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dinesh Singh, had expressed utter disdain for the rule of law, civility, decency and propriety. Hundreds of students and teachers had gathered under the banner of the DUTA to agitate against the VC’s misrule and indifference towards hapless students who were made to suffer through such decisions. Hence, the DUTA notes with satisfaction that the High Court’s order on the ‘special chance’ is a slap on the face of the VC’s arbitrariness and, in turn, helps expose his anti-student attitude beneath his carefully cultivated suave exterior and public-relations gimmicks.
The DUTA’s ongoing Indefinite Relay Hunger Strike has entered its 45th day today with teachers from Shivaji College and Aurobindo College (Morning) sitting on Hunger Strike. The Extended DUTA Executive will meet on Sunday, Nov 25, 2012 at 10:30 AM to discuss and decide on further intensification of its struggle against the University Administration, and the VC, who continues to remain inert and cold-blooded while the University is in a state of chaos and anarchy and the academics, in total shambles.
S.D. Siddiqui, Secretary Amar Deo Sharma, President
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