Governor finally names search panel to select NU VC
The NU Management Council had already named IIT Jodhpur director professor Avinash Agarwal as its nominee to the panel in September last year.
The governor's office hasn't disclosed the name of the search panel chairman, though NU sources said a retired professor from a South Indian university is likely to lead the committee. The principal secretary of higher education, or a principal secretary nominated by the govt, will be the third member on the panel.
The advertisement for the VC post will now follow, calling for applications from desirable candidates. Once the advertisement is published, it will take at least two months to name the new NU VC as the application period, scrutiny, shortlisting, and interviews will take time. Finally, the panel will recommend five names to the governor, who is the chancellor of public universities.
However, the uncertainty over the continuation of deans still persists.
Earlier, the chancellor allowed the continuation of the deans beyond April 30, the final cut-off in case of the death of a VC. This was extended till June 15. Now, it remains to be seen whether the deans will get another extension or the posts are allowed to fall vacant in anticipation of the new VC's appointment.
The governor's decision follows a series of administrative changes at NU. In March this year, governor Radhakrishnan relieved Gondwana University vice chancellor Prashant Bokare of the additional charge of NU, handing over the responsibility to additional divisional commissioner Madhavi Khode Chavre.
This move raised questions about the sudden removal of Bokare, who served eight months in the role.
Bokare had first held the NU VC position from March 11 to April 11 last year after the suspension of then-VC Subhash Chaudhari. He was reinstated in July 2024 following Chaudhari's second suspension, and continued after Chaudhari's demise in September 2024.
Under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, the additional charge of a VC can be held for up to one year. For the first time since 2014, a bureaucrat was assigned the VC role at NU, after then divisional commissioner Anup Kumar held the position following the termination of VC Vilas Sapkal.
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The lawyers for the accused submitted that the case be heard after the High Court decides on their plea to quash the case and another one challenging the discharge of the Muslim men. The Maharashtra ATS, too, has challenged the decision to release the nine Muslim men and submitted that both sets of accused be put to trial. It had taken a stand in the Malegaon 2008 case that it would not be a party to the case as the NIA had taken over its probe, even as its investigation was called 'dubious' and its officers were accused of planting evidence. The last hearing on the appeals in the High Court took place in 2019. While Singh and Sharma were also investigated by the NIA in the 2008 case when it took over in 2011, they were dropped as accused five years later after the agency claimed there was no proof against them. When it arrested Singh, the NIA had said that Kalsangra and Dange had instructed him to transport the motorcycle fitted with the explosive from Madhya Pradesh and hand it over to Kalsangra.
