Six Panjab University senators write to Dhankhar over delay in deans’ elections

Six senators of Panjab University (PU) have written to Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is the chancellor of the university, over the delay in election of faculty deans

Six senators of Panjab University (PU) have written to Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is the chancellor of the university, over the delay in election of faculty deans.

The elections for faculty deans were scheduled to be held on December 3, but was later deferred by the varsity. (HT File)

The elections for faculty deans were scheduled to be held on December 3, but was later deferred by the varsity. The senators – DPS Randhawa, Rajat Sandhir, Jatinder Grover, Shaminder Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Kataria and Jagdeep Kumar – said that the elections were postponed without giving any fresh date and the move has resulted in the delay in promotions of over 100 university teachers.

They alleged in the letter that to sabotage elections, the vice-chancellor and registrar of the university had removed names of professors who are above the age of 60 from the voter list for the election of faculty deans.

“Later on, with the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High court, the names of professors above the age of 60 was included, but the elections were postponed by the registrar without giving any fresh date. As a consequence, cases of promotion of more than 100 teachers got delayed again and it’s also impacting research activities gravely,” the letter reads.

Secretary to vice-chancellor (V-C) Kashmir Singh said that the election of deans was postponed as the voter lists have to be changed in view of the HC’s orders and they need adequate time to hold the elections.