19 hours ago
Appointment process begins for new VC at Gurukul Kangri Univ amid ongoing legal issues
Haridwar: Gurukul Kangri (Deemed to be) University in Haridwar is set to appoint its new vice-chancellor – two months after the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha (APS) units of Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi appointed its chancellor – settling a long-standing controversy over the appointment of the top two university functionaries.
However, authorities said legal proceedings in the matter are still ongoing.
APS Delhi secretary, Vinay Arya said that the appointment of the VC will be made under
University Grants Commission
(UGC) rules, with the university's board of management (BoM) initiating the process. Notably, the authority to appoint the university's chancellor and VC was restored to the APS bodies on May 21, after previously being restricted under UGC Regulations 2023.
A letter from the Union education ministry dated March 3 this year allowed the university to continue with its existing memorandum of association (MoA) under the UGC Regulations 2019, while exempting it — for now — from the UGC Regulations 2023.
The university is required to sign a revised MoU with the ministry, UGC, and itself. Crucially, the exemption is conditional. If the university fails to meet the requirements by FY 2027–28 — which includes the creation and maintenance of a corpus fund by the sponsoring bodies — it will be required to fully adopt the 2023 regulations.
A senior university official said that this condition is yet to be met by the sponsoring bodies, which could impact the university's compliance status in the future.
In another condition laid down in the ministry's letter, it was stated that the university must present duly audited books of account indicating that its total receipts and expenses are more than twice the govt grants received.
While the sponsoring bodies are confident of achieving it by the deadline, the university staff's optimism rests on their failure to do so.
"They will not under any circumstance be able to raise their contribution to the level and must necessarily adopt the 2023 regulations," said Rajaneesh Bhardwaj, president of the university non-teaching staff union. "Adoption of the regulations will pave the way for the appointment of both the chancellor and VC by the govt.
This will be in the best interest of the university," he added.
A university official, on account of anonymity, took exception to the MoA drafted by the sponsoring bodies. "According to the draft, the ownership of Gurukul Kangri will vest with the sponsoring body. Secondly, it creates a society which will be above the BoM. These provisions are clearly against the 2019 regulations," he said. The university's officiating VC Hemalatha K said she would not like to comment as the matter was still sub judice.
"All that I can say is that the matter should be decided in the best interest of the university."
