Former senate member Dhananjay Kulkarni has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the state government on Saturday for delay in the selection process of new vice-chancellor at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).
On May 17, the tenure of former vice-chancellor of SPPU Prof Nitin Karmalkar ended and its temporary charge was handed over to Prof Karbhari Vishwanath Kale. Prof Kale is also the vice-chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere, district Raigad.
“The selection process for the post of the V-C of SPPU was supposed to start six months ago, but due to lack of political will and complete ignorance, the process has not started. So we have filed a PIL against the state government and demanded that as per the 2016 University Act, the selection process should start immediately,” said Kulkarni.
“It is an important period for the university as various elections will take place soon. Soon the senate member elections will be held and we need a full-time V-C at SPPU,” he said.
Earlier the SPPU management council has given the name of Deepak Karandikar, IIT Kharagpur director, as one of the members of the selection committee. Whereas other two names which include one from the governor and another from the state government are not yet given.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier the SPPU management council has given the name of Deepak Karandikar, IIT Kharagpur director, as one of the members of the selection committee. Whereas other two names which include one from the governor and another from the state government are not yet given.
{{/usCountry}}Prof Mahendra Dharmadhikari, political science department SPPU, said, “The post of vice-chancellor is very important for any university, for its functioning and day-to-day operations. As per the rules, the process should have started much earlier, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen and now looking at the political crisis going on in the state it is anticipated that it will get delayed too.”