The DUTA Executive, in an emergency meeting held yesterday, unanimously condemned the severe penalty imposed on the seven teachers of Hindu College who had written to the Hon’ble Lt Governor of Delhi (LG) about illegal construction in the College and demanded its immediate revocation. The written order served on them by the Principal lists the following punitive action to be taken against them.(a) they will each lose two annual increments, with cumulative effect (meaning that they will lose lakhs over the course of their careers; (b) they will be debarred from holding any administrative post for five years, including membership of any statutory committee formed by the Staff Council, starting immediately; (c) they will be “continuously under watch”, and reports on their conduct will be submitted to the GB annually; (d) this will be reviewed after five years by the GB; and (e) in the meanwhile, the fact of this punishment will be raised at any consideration of promotion. Incredibly, this draconian measure is being represented by the Chairman of the GB as a “lenient” one, and aimed at “not only them but even others in future for working against the institution”.
Significantly, this order will prevent the seven teachers from working as members of Staff Council committees, where they could articulate concerns about the functioning of the college, including the hostel and admissions. On the issue of admissions, the Staff Council has been at loggerheads with the Chairman, who had refused to implement the sports and ECA quota after being denied a management quota by the university.
In March 2014, these teachers were charged with “gross misconduct” and “bringing disrepute to the College”, subjected to a farce of an inquiry, conducted by two members of the very governing body (GB) against whom they had written to the LG, and despite their various written submissions and protests about the manner in which this farcical inquiry was conducted, they were found “guilty”.
This action of the GB comes close on the heels of a similarly extreme step taken barely a month ago, when the services of two other teachers from the same college were terminated. There, too, the procedure leading up to their dismissal from service was riddled with bias, prejudice and violations of rules and due process, from start to finish. It is significant that the seven teachers currently being targeted had also been vociferous in their support of the two dismissed colleagues, and two of them had even served as defence assistant in the inquiry against those two teachers.
Members of the DUTA attended the Hindu College Staff Association (HCSA) meeting held today and strongly condemned the entire course of actions undertaken by the GB in this matter. DUTA and HCSA jointly call on the GB, and especially its Chairman, to stop treating the college like his personal fiefdom and treating its teachers as criminals who must be kept under surveillance. Such high-handedness clearly arises from the Chairman’s misconception that the Hindu Education Trust “owns” the College, as stated explicitly by the Chairman in the punishment order. A delegation of the DUTA and HCSA met the Officiating Principal to express their outrage at the developments and urged her to play a more responsible and ethical role in the entire matter in keeping with the university ordinances, the principles of natural justice and the democratic ethos of a university, values that the businessman Punj and his coterie clearly do not understand.
The DUTA and HCSA demand the removal of the Chairman and the immediate recall of the said punishment order to seven teachers, as well as the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the two dismissed teachers, with no reflection on the record of any of these teachers. As a first step, the following action programme has been announced:
- Daily dharna at the Hindu College gate from 12 – 3 pm
- Every member of the DUTA Executive and the AC and EC will write a letter individually to the LG enclosing the said letter written by the seven teachers demanding an enquiry into the issues raised by them.
- A postcard campaign will be launched whereby every teacher will send a personal postcard to the Visitor (c/o MHRD) demanding his intervention for immediate reinstatement of the two colleagues and withdrawal of punitive action against the seven teachers.
- DUTA will write to the Visitor demanding the removal of the Chairperson and a full-fledged enquiry into the financial and administrative irregularities in Hindu College.
- A protest demonstration will be held at the residence of the Chairman, SNP Punj.
- Teachers will wear badges demanding the withdrawal of punitive measures against nine teachers of Hindu College.
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