DUTA PRESS RELEASE on Termination of 13 Ad-hoc teachers in Miranda House

The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) and the Miranda House Staff Association (MHSA) are holding this press conference to highlight the extremely grave situation of the sudden and arbitrary retrenchment of 13 Ad hoc teachers in Miranda House. Given below are some of the incidents leading up to the retrenchment:

1. The MHSA was apprised of a college decision to terminate 13 Adhoc teachers across different departments as a matter of policy after the discovery of an administrative lapse in exceeding the total number of teachers beyond a second tranche cap.

2. The administration called an academic committee meeting on 23/8/2016, where teachers in charges were asked to make changes to their department workloads [first submitted in May 2016] so that each department could terminate ad hoc teachers so as to meet the requirements of the cap.

3. The SA held a meeting on 24 August and unanimously resolved to protest this retrenchment move on the grounds that these teachers were appointed against a duly approved workload as per the 2013 university ordinance and the UGC gazette notification on the 4th amendment on workload norms, as well as according to the requirements of the CBCS course framework across all central universities.The workload that exists as per the EC Resolution of 17 August 2013, Point No: 3, clearly defines 14 hours of workload for Associate Professors and 16 hours of workload for Assistant Professors per week.

4. A Staff Council meeting on 24 August could not reach any resolution and the Principal requested the house to cooperate with the institution in a moment of crisis. Every department was also allowed an autonomy in making up the classes the ad hoc teachers had taught by moving to 15/18 from 14/16, increasing tutorial group sizes against UGC workload norms and CBCS norms. Some departments refused to make any of these changes.

5. Since this was a case of extreme injustice to the Adhoc teachers who are the most vulnerable section of the teaching community, a DUTA team met the Principal on Friday, 26 August and requested the Principal not to go ahead with the termination without taking the matter to the Governing Body of the college.

6. To our utter dismay we found termination letters, duly signed by the Principal, served in her absence on 29 August.

7. On 1 September, a team of DUTA activists and members of the MHSA were told by the Acting Principal that the college had received a letter from the MHRD asking it to explain the termination and asking how the college planned to tackle the large number of classes untaught.

8. The staff association has met on a number of occasions through this crisis and is of the opinion that the Governing Body must step in to address this issue and resolved to write to the Governing body, requesting its intervention in this matter.

Activists of DUTA, who met the principal last week and have followed up with the Officiating Principal, are also of this opinion. However, to this date the Governing Body has not been convened. The Staff Association has now written directly to the Governing Body to intervene in this matter on an urgent basis.

We request the media, therefore, to carry news of this grave injustice, explicitly against the interests of the teaching learning process as well in violation of ordinances and statutes. We urge the media to take cognizance of the plight of the Ad hoc teachers and help in securing justice for them.