PRESS RELEASE: 6 January 2014

Teachers of the University marched under the banner of the DUTA to the VC’s Office today to protest the brazen distortions in the process of appointments and the implementation of the Government’s Reservation Policy. Teachers decried unfair imposition of additional screening criteria on eligible candidates who have applied against the teaching vacancies that have been advertised by the University. Going beyond the compulsions of the UGC Regulations, Delhi University has introduced a points system to screen and shortlist the number of candidates who will eventually be called for interviews. An irrational minimum of 60 points and 75 points for colleges and university departments respectively, have been fixed to determine the shortlist. The DUTA maintains that such a points system is not mandated by the UGC and is, instead, in disregard of the UGC’s fixed minimum eligibility criteria. Further, it will eliminate maximum teachers currently working on ad hoc basis within the university as they have had little time to accumulate the number of points required within the system.

The GOI’s Reservation Policy and its 200-Point Roster have also been implemented in a faulty and arbitrary manner which ignores the entitlement of teachers from the SC, ST and OBC categories and has done away with backlog and shortfall in reserved posts. The application of the Roster will lead to grave imbalances between departments in terms of the number of reserved posts and expose the process of reservations to manipulation by authorities. The DUTA has been campaigning against this arbitrary implementation for some time now and has held a series of workshops to come up with a Roster and Mode of Implementation that is in consonance with the GOI’s reservation Policy and respects the entitlement of the SC, ST and OBC teachers while, at the same time ensuring a balance between departments. The University Administration has ignored the concerns and arguments raised by the DUTA and has instead relied on the one-track and misguided sense of the VC who has been consistently evasive about the issue of Reservations and Appointments.

The teachers also condemned the blatant violation of the composition of the selection committee stipulated in the UGC Regulations. The DU authorities have replaced that with a one overrun by nominees of the VC, thus confirming the fears that all the distortions are meant to help him influence the process and do away with objectivity and impartiality in appointments.

Teachers turned up in large numbers to express their anger against the VC and the Administration’s pig-headed refusal to engage with the DUTA on these issues.

In the coming days, the DUTA will continue to intensify its opposition to the VC’s deliberate efforts to rig the appointments which have just begun.