‘Thampu appointed illegally'

The NCMEI asks DU to start the process for the appointment of a regular principal at St Stephen’s College, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 6, 2008, 03:01:10 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The National Commission for Minority Education Institutions (NCMEI) on Tuesday asked Delhi University to start the process for the appointment of a regular principal at St Stephen’s College, upholding the university’s contention that the appointment of Valson Thampu as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) was “patently illegal.”

DU had said Thampu’s appointment violated the its Ordinance XXIV, that required the principal to have a PhD at the time of appointment. NCMEI ruled that Thampu did not have a doctorate when he was appointed on May 19, 2007.

Thampu said he would challenge the order in court. “It is very surprising that a verdict that affects me in a very substantial way was arrived at without serving notice to me, though I am one of the parties in the case,” he told Hindustan Times. I was given no chance to defend myself, which is a completely betrayal of the process of natural justice. The entire process was carried out behind my back. I will certainly pursue all possible legal remedies.”

Thampu also argued NCMEI had no power to take action against him under the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act. “Under the Act, the Commission can either take suo motu cognizance or a complaint can be made by an institution or someone authorised by it. The person who filed the petition is not even a student of the college. The petition could not have been maintained under Section 11-B of the Act,” he said.

The petitioner in this case was Sheetal P Singh, a lawyer, who also raised doubts about the genuineness of Thampu’s PhD degree. DU said the power to appoint an OSD in a college lay with the vice-chancellor and not with the college governing body.

The governing body and supreme council of St Stephen’s College had appointed Thampu instead of recommending a panel of three names to the DU vice-chancellor as is required under the university ordinance.

“It needs to be highlighted that the governing body of the college has not recommended the panel of at least three names to the V-C for approval of Thampu for appointment as an OSD,” the NCMEI order said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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