A central university vice chancellor, appointed three years ago by the National Democratic Alliance government, is now likely to be sacked by the same regime, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday. A proposal to dismiss Jawahar Lal Kaul of the Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University was sent by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the president last week.
Kaul is accused of administrative irregularities. He was appointed by the ministry when it was led by Smriti Irani in November 2014 – weeks after right-wing activists allegedly manhandled him because he wanted students to contribute to relief work in floods-hit Kashmir.
This is the first time the current government has gone against an appointment made by itself.
Kaul also allegedly allowed affiliated colleges to increase their intake in some courses to 200 seats, violating rules that limit the number at 60 and 80 in some cases. He also allegedly decided to make it cheaper than prescribed for colleges to get affiliation with the university.
Kaul was served a show-cause notice in February based on a report by a fact-finding committee. Other allegations against him were that he approved backdated affiliation to some institutes and declared examination results of some private institutes whose affiliation was under the scanner.
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