Gurukkal joins issue with MGU authorities

Rajan Gurukkal, former Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), has joined issue with the current administrative dispensation of the varsity on the controversial cancellation of appointments of two assistant professors and re-notification of a host of faculty vacancies carried out during his tenure, through a syndicate decision.

In a statement here on Thursday, Prof. Gurukkal came down heavily on the university authorities and alleged that the syndicate had misled the High Court and was grooming its ground viable for corruption in the recruitment of the faculty. ‘‘The syndicate, through a highly irregular move, has cancelled not only its own appointment of a Scheduled Caste candidate, but also the appointment in a University Grants Commission-sanctioned post, by managing government disapproval for it,’’ he said.

Prof. Gurukkal said the syndicate had upset the faculty recruitment through a wrong interpretation of reservation norms. When the UGC sanctions a faculty position with the mandatory condition of sustenance, it is notified as ‘Likely to be made Permanent.’ The action on the part of the syndicate to re-notify it as a temporary post will have far-reaching consequences, since it affects all appointments made since 2007, he said pointing out that a total paralysis of the university’s faculty appointment is going to be the consequent disaster.

The legal complications apart, the decision would involve huge economic loss to the university, for on the one hand it forfeits the UGC allocation, while on the other, the salary already paid remains the university’s liability, Prof. Gurukkal said.