NLUO Cuttack allegedly terminated the services of six faculty members without notice during the summer vacations, which ended today. This leaves the law school with 14 law, management and arts teachers.
Three sources at the law school and one independent source told Legally India that six assistant professors who had joined the law school in October 2011, who had passed their probation period in April of this year, were dismissed from service without supplying any grounds for dismissal.
They were offered a severance pay in lieu of notice of termination, according to Legally India’s sources.
Out of the dismissed teachers, two were from the school of law, three were from the school of managerial excellence, and one was from the school of liberal arts at NLUO.
The law school’s website still lists their names in the faculty directory, in addition to the name of one other faculty member, Prof Sovik Ray, who resigned for unrelated reasons several months ago.
NLUO vice chancellor (VC) Prof V Nagaraj, who was registrar at NLSIU Bangalore until his appointment as VC in March 2013, was not reachable for comment by phone and email since Thursday. NLUO registrar Dr Pabitra Mohan Samal did not deny the termination of the faculty but declined to comment further.
Law school news website Lawctopus yesterday published an open letter from a final year NLUO student who decried the lack of teachers, a small campus and inadequate transportation and hostel facilities at the law school. [Ed: The post on Lawctopus has since been taken offline]
Other administrative crises that have recently plagued the five-year old law school in Cuttack include the belated appointment of Nagaraj, after the law school’s first two VCs resigned mid tenure, and the scrapping of a degree course before the first two students who had enrolled for it could complete it.
In February, NLSIU Bangalore terminated visiting faculty Sidharth Chauhan, two months after he questioned the administration’s stance on student issues. Chauhan has since joined Nalsar Hyderabad.
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Yeah, don't publish them Kian, I agree with your decision.
Further the post no longer appears on Lawctopus.
And if there are dismissals going on, so is recruitment. So it is not entirely a picture of mayhem and macabre out there.
The post was from a student of NLUO and was removed on his/her request.
Best,
Terminating Professors does not amount to a situation of crisis. Dear author, I fail to understand why do you people always show the darker side. Let me bring to your notice that alongside termination of existing professor there have been fresh appointments. I am sorry but is not a responsible act to publish something that is misleading.
As far as the open letter is concerned, the mere fact that it has been removed is sufficiently indicative enough of how authentic the content was.
This site is indeed a great portal for the law students to acquaint themselves with current legal affairs, however such misleading posts are not warranted and highly disappointing.
Dont turn your eye away from whats wrong and dont be imperious nor be obsequious. nluo is too far away from moving towards 'fresh woods and pastures new'.
Hahahah :-)
So you are Arsenal!!!
1. You don't 'reasons' for dismissal. You write your entire piece based on assumption that the said people were under-performing.
2. Cuttack isn't exactly the place-to-be for most of the 'talented' faculty, and firing of these people leaves only 6 'law' faculty in the place. Should it even be allowed to call itself 'University' anymore?
Said by some 'Law School' idiot who doesn't realize how quickly your lil place is being made to loose its sheen by the man-in-charge. Wake up lil boy, wake up!
Name one decent moot you did well* in.
* Participating is not equal to 'well' for me.
Thank you for your comments.
We were in fact initially looking for fresh appointment figures at NLUO and have tried long and hard to reach the administration but to no avail.
In fact reaching NLUO administration has been a problem we've faced in the past also, before Prof Nagaraj, due to dysfunctional phone numbers.
It would be good for NLUO to have mobile numbers listed for individual faculty and administration members on the website itself.
Best regards,
Prachi
Hahaha :-)
How naive, you must be from NLS!!!
Huh? You mean, just like the NLS VC fired Sid Chauhan after "applying" his mind? Everyone said it was an arbitrary act, which just shows that it is too much to say that a person of authority would not wield his powers without applying his mind. If that was true, we would not have so many cases on "arbitrariness" and "due process".
This is a general comment on the assertion you made. I have no idea whether NLUO VC applied his mind.
What kind of website r u guys running? nagraj is finally doing some goodwork but no instead of finding that out you just publish whatever was conviniently available to you on d grounds of some pathetic idiot's open letter who doesnt even knw proper english. And oviously a low rung law school doing gud will nt create as mch controversy as dt law school doing miserable.
so now i guess all ur posts are misleading like dis one!
umm..no! Teachers left during FM's tenure too. They weren't fired, but given the sly fox FM is, he created situations that they themselves resigned. Atleast VN had the guts to call the spade a spade, and dismiss them.
Plus tell me what would you prefer, continuing with teachers who weren't performing OR appoint new, more competent ones (even if that means facing adversity for short period of time).
And LI could have acted more responsible by not painting a dark picture if they failed to get the stats about new faculty right. The tome of the entire article shows Nluo in a very negative light, which is what the students find outrageous.
It seems u are one of those blue eyed student FM left behind, Now that u are so loyal i am sure he will call u to NALSAR, one of the loyal faculty whose service was terminated has been called by FM to join the newly opened MBA course. I m sure FM will have something in store for u!
FYI- His new courses were hogwash, he knew how to initiate them but not how to implement them.
Can anyone confirm the names of the new faculty that some commenters are saying have been hired?
Also, does anyone actually know know the reason that these six profs were removed?
Best wishes,
Kian
Let's just say that they weren't the brightest. The university still retains the best of the talent. And their performance had never been above-slackening. The allegations that VN dismissed them because they did not see eye to eye with him, could not be farther from the truth.
Why not view this process as a cleansing process than a situation of crisis?? As already mentioned, recruitments are in the pipeline. This was done to better things at a place where nothing unusually haywire is happening. All institutions face this situation at some or the other time.
3rd Year NLU-O Student.
Non performance is not a ground at all. Four non law teachers are retrenched (on the basis of workload) suddenly without giving notice or notice period salary. Five out of these six, were already made up their mind to leave NLUO due to administrative reason and the same was communicated to the new VC. Just before the summer vacation, the VC assured to retain all non law faculties with starting new courses and centers in coming semester. On this assurance, they did not reply to any interview calls and before the end of vacation they got termination letter. What has been done is administrative discretion but the manner is totally illegal, unethical and inhumane . At least it can't be expected from a labour law expert.
It seems you are one of them, who was treated illegally,unethically and inhumanely!
Do we assume that you tried to look for fresh appointment numbers at NLUO which were 'very difficult' to find and instead, ended up finding dismissal numbers? How come dismissals were so easy to find while appointments were not? Is this legal journalism true to its spirit? I dont think so.
And yes, at the cost of being repetitive, I again say that prof. Nagaraj is doing a very very good job at NLUO unlike the biased Faizan Mustafa who made both appointments and dismissals according to his own whims and fancies.
If you were so concerned about new universities being 'plagued' with crises, you should actually have reported the mis-doings during Mustafa's tenure and not this, at least not now, when NLUO is doing very well indeed!
At least get your facts right. During entire term of Prof. Faizan Mustafa not a single faculty was terminated. This explains that when Prof. Faizan Mustafa started NLUO there were 19 faculties for 120 students. Now NLUO is left with 11 teachers for 600 students!!! This way NLUO is soon going to be taken over by Madhusudan Law College .... Plz welcome Nag ka Raj.
From the looks of it,you are a student of NLUO and have a lot against the college. Kindly do not take the pains to come back to college this Sem, or ever, for that matter? Thanks. :)
yeah during those days Prof. Mustafa could appoint people on contract, easily. But now what NLUO is looking to fill up are permanent positions.
The law teachers dismissed is a great loss both of them were very knowledgeable and were good in imparting knowledge. One of the law teachers dismissed is really a gem for the Indian Legal Education system and very few teachers in the country would be better or at par with him.While the other always supported the students when administrative decisions were against them and some times even instigated them to go against the administration when some wrong was done to him.
I don't know whether they were given a notice of termination in advance or not but I have personally seen one of the teacher applying to one of the university in Hyderabad (not Nalsar for sure) and writing the application for the same in 2nd week of April.
I personally do not know the six individuals (barring a passing acquaintance with one) or their motives. However, this is yet another instance of a larger malaise, i.e. the Vice-Chancellors of some of these law schools acting in a high-handed manner when it comes to faculty hiring and firing, especially at the feeder level where younger teachers initially join on temporary contracts and then have to go through probation periods before being regularized. As opposed to Central Universities, where the period of uncertainty usually lasts for 1-2 years, in the national law schools, teachers can be on tenterhooks for up to 4-5 years before being given tenure. While I agree with the suggestion above that those who do not perform well in the classroom should be shown the door, this cannot be a sweeping assumption. There are numerous instances of teachers who are treated like personal servants by administrators in some of these schools. Several (including myself) have been removed from temporary positions for reasons that are entirely unrelated to academic performance. My erstwhile boss (also the incumbent at my alma mater) has created an environment where anyone who openly disagrees with him faces the risk of retaliation.
I have been Prof. V. Nagraj's student at NLSIU Bangalore and know him quite well. While he is a competent Labour Law teacher, during his stint as Registrar of NLSIU, he exhibited intolerance towards those who even slightly differed from his standpoint. My fear is that since he has now become the incumbent of a fledgling institution, he might be letting his personal dislikes play a role in these decisions rather than calm consideration. In any case, I hope the students do not suffer and that he appoints a group of able and motivated teachers to take that institution forward.
The minor infractions that you are talking about - one of the teacher did not handover the result even after the semester results were declared, he was that careless! Is that the quality you want from a professor of a law school?
Another gentlemen did not believe in teaching his subject he thought it was more important to provoke the students against the VC/admin! In one particular semester, thruout he just criticized the admin. This is wen Nagraj had not even joined. I was a part f d class i know what i went thru. would u like to be taught by such teacher?
And andr one f dem was FM's partner in crime. Evn tho part of NLUO owes his loyalty to FM in all circumstances.
What we have seen in Mustafa nothing can be worse than that!
Kindly stop your dirty politics..You have no clue, whatsoever, of what's happening in NLU O.. I sincerely hope that you come out of your NLS delusions..
I obviously don't know the particulars about these six and what they have done inside the classroom, but the point is that even if there were sufficient reasons to let them go, they should have been given notice in advance. Their contracts stipulated 3 months' notice or equivalent pay in lieu of the same. It is very difficult to find an academic job right at the beginning of the academic year and giving fair notice would have been the decent thing to do. Even the Executive Council (EC) meeting that authorised these terminations had been held on May 5 and 12, 2013. Dr. Nagraj could have easily informed these six at that time.
With respect to the comment below ('Reply'), I do know that some of these teachers had openly criticised the previous Vice-Chancellor and did not have any altercation with Dr. Nagraj. In such a scenario, any points of disagreement or concerns about their performance could have been discussed internally after he joined on March 15. Termination without notice is certainly a disproportionate step.
I personally felt compelled to intervene since Dr. Nagraj sat silently even as Dr. R. Venkata Rao had ostensibly obtained an authorisation for my removal from NLSIU during an Executive Council (EC) meeting held on January 13, 2013 and there was not even a whisper of what was to come until the termination notice was sent via e-mail on January 31, 2013. So perhaps I identify with the situation to a certain extent. I don't see why anyone at NLU-Orissa needs to be offended.
I am not obligated to disclose my name while commenting. I am not as famous as you to be recognized either. Claiming brownie points for having disclosed your name reflects your poor understanding of the forum wherein you are commenting. You may even put up your institutional email id on this site soliciting discussions, as you did in a previous article pertaining to your termination from NLS. But, I personally felt that no one who has respect for his alma matar/serving institution would do that. Preferences do vary.
The severance pay in lieu of the notice has been paid and I don't see the illegality in the same. You can't retain teachers who instigate students against the administration in open class - a situation which embarrassed the students themselves. While you argue for the teachers who have lost their jobs at the start of the academic year, you fail to see the larger picture. What about the plight of the 100 new students who have secured admissions to this college. You would definitely not want them to sit on a strike against the administration in their first year itself.
In response to dig at Sidharth's putting up id for discussion - Most of us have been taught in a positivist set-up where free discussion is trumped by institutional loyalties. Nor do most of us immerse ourselves in literature available around the benefits of discussion which create an understanding instead of dogma.
In light of that I wouldn't expect most of you law students (not you personally) to understand the nuanced levels at which Sidharth makes his point.
I personally do not give a damn a hot good/bad your place is doing. That is for you guys to care, but I am worried about the unchecked powers vested in the VC's of these institutions which was envisaged for people with integrity, but has fallen into the hands of decidedly mediocre minds for whom the power of position outweighs responsibility towards academia and society at large.
...
PS: This is in no way intended to be against any student of NLU-O, but only a polite reminder to the 'Intervenor' that probably he is missing the point being made by Sidharth whom he doesn't know and hence should refrain from making indiscreet comments about.
On the question of institutional loyalties, I am a little bemused by your suggestion. The experience of having been a student at NLSIU has been truly transformative. I had joined the school in a teaching position in July 2011 primarily due to a sense of loyalty. However, it is the unabashed populism and intransigence of it's present V-C that drove me to the path of open criticism. Perhaps, most of you haven't really understood what has been going on in my alma mater since 2009. Students who fail in subjects by large margins approach the V-C at the end of the academic year and are miraculously given a passing grade with absolutely no considerations of process for overturning the subject-teacher's evaluation. There are no faculty meetings to discuss academic policies, student feedback on teachers or to even collaborate on scholarly pursuits. In short, a rapid undoing of the institutional practices that had evolved over two decades. It was in the background of such opacity and shortsightedness, that I criticized the reduction of curfew hours for students, a decision made without a whiff of meaningful consultation with affected parties.
Even after my dismissal, I have tried to highlight the existing academic malpractices in the hope of constructive changes in the long-run. If I adopt your worldview on institutional loyalties, the existing malpractices are likely to escalate further and NLSIU will be the once promising institution that never really became a seat for learning. It is like saying that as members of a family, we should keep quiet about domestic violence in order to keep the clan's honor intact. While I might be over-stressing the point, I am a little worried that as a law student you are privileging institutional loyalties over an open discussion on its' working. After you graduate, will you adopt the same approach in respect of your loyalties to the institutions that you are part of, namely, family, workplace, caste, religion? If there is no critical scrutiny from within, how will institutions evolve in an inclusive and progressive manner.
In any case, my verbosity may be causing more irritation so I'll stop here. If Dr. Nagraj permits, I would be very happy to run a guest course on the ideas of deliberative democracy for students at NLU-Orissa. From the tenor of the posts on this forum, I think that would be beneficial for all parties involved.
While I appreciate your understanding of the happenings at NLS, i would like to gently reiterate that you have no idea of what's happening in NLUO. Your "deemed knowledge" is limited to a LI article and few gossips. Therefore, I am of the opinion that any person - especially someone of your stature should abstain from commenting in the absence of accurate knowledge of the situation. Faculty meetings are being regularly conducted in NLUO and new faculty members have been appointed.[ you can seek a confirmation on that from your "sources"]
And as far as your analogy is concerned, I am really amused - more so, because it is coming from a law teacher . If I were a victim of domestic violence, I would go to the police station - not the press , and definitely not to the comments section.
I think the debate about where comments should be made is a little fallacious.
I understands that students want to protect the reputation of their university, but sometimes a bit of transparency about what is going on in an institution can actually strengthen it.
Sid is saying that a lawschool should have an environment of deliberation, accountability, fairness and due process. Present VCs in most of the older lawschools have failed that spirit in some way or the other, more so at certain institutions. If that is gone, these institutions will become a shadow of what they used to be. If India becomes a dictatorship, a citizen used to democracy will want democracy back. SId's situation is like such a citizen of India, as his alma mater is losing some basic principles on which it was founded. NLS is becomming an institution that operates under a close minded, arbitrary bigot, and most lawschools are in the same danger zone . already similarly affected. He is empathizing with NLU-O.
Think a bit about it. You'll be at peace. Start thinking reasonably and learn to appreciate all viewpoints.
Since we seem to be talking past each other, this is my last comment on this thread. I am not making a direct comparison between what has happened at NLSIU with the events in NLU-Orissa. As I have repeatedly acknowledged in the comments above, I have only heard second-hand accounts from that campus. However, I was trying to illustrate the broader point about looking past institutional loyalties in order to engage in a fair-minded discussion about the administration of these schools.
As for the analogy, it is stronger than what you suggest. A complex problem like domestic violence needs to be addressed at multiple levels, namely that of seeking redress through the criminal law machinery as well as initiating a broader dialogue to trigger attitudinal changes. My opinion is that the abuse of discretionary powers by administrators in the law schools needs more scrutiny, especially when the formal channels for redress have been repeatedly shown to be ineffective.
My comments in this thread are not solely based on what has happened over the past year. Over the last seven years, I have had a chance to interact with several lawyers and judges (including Chancellors) who serve on the governing bodies of these law schools and most of them agree that they are casual visitors who largely act on the recommendations of the incumbent V-Cs. In any case, I hope I've clarified that my intent is not to defame NLU-Orissa but to deepen the public discourse on the administration of the autonomous law schools. I don't see why the use of this forum should be seen as improper.
Also, the way the NLUs are run by the incumbents, who exercise their powers quite arbitrarily, is plainly shocking. Prof. Ranbir Singh of NALSAR / NLUD and Justice Mathur of NLUJ also took various arbitrary decisions to implement what they felt was the right way to take the institutions forward. While their intentions may have been good, it is disappointing if lawyers lack a sense of fairness or respect for due process. Lawschool is about thinking and acting like a lawyer. Arbitrary VCs spoil that experience.
I think you need to get your facts right. Either you seem to have forgotten or chose to forget some teachers whose services had been arbitrarily terminated. I do not want to take names, but do NOT allege me of things that you seem to know nothing of.
The teachers which you are thinking, resigned and were not terminated leave alone arbitrarily terminated. I hope your teachers were able to teach you the difference between the two.
And they resigned because? Get YOUR facts right!! FM created such situations that they had no option, but leave. Atleast VN spared them the face-on humiliations. In effect, both the situations had teachers leaving. Tomato/tomahto.
And the funny part is you know Bijwasan, the teachers who were unable to teach the difference between the two, have been thankfully, dismissed. :)
The only request that I often make to you and your sister websites is do not focus much on Happening news which might hurt sentiments of a particular clan and disturb the decorum. Or may gain some publicity and render comments.
Your website has undoubtedly benefited masses but Journalism is about good and bad. You are significant to the legal fraternity especially Law schools. Help them grow and prosper.
Chart down some exceptional plans for law schools and forward them in order to help them in administration.
If you and other law websites keep on doing the same, then consider yourself to be INDIA TV , when you should be working like NDTV.
Regards.
In the initial days of DSNLU vizag there was no such move for termination or removal of faculties on the grounds of contract or incapacity. The founder vice-chancellor Prof. Y Satyanarayana of DSNLU had appointed all those faculties who were once upon his students. There was no option of removal of those faculties even if the faculties are acting contrary to its profession. For a long period of time these faculty fraternities started working on their whims. They were biased among students and was so powerful to act in any way without any fear. Some incidents of intimidation were also heard like threat to fail in the exam and so on.
There are still some faculties left from the past but the level of bias has been reduced after the change of earlier VC. Now every new faculty is taken on contract basis.
I personally feel there must be change in the faculties to maintain transparency in the academics.
If courses are abolished, teachers are to be fired. There is no wrong at all by new NLUO VC. We must give him three years to show results and support him in his actions. He is a great Labor Law and ADR Prof. He has substantive exp as Registrar of best law school. We should not find fault with him. It is his prerogative to hire and fire. If he is bringing good faculty members, its a welcome step. He has also fired Fiance officer and Project Director for good reasons.
Even otherwise, this action is for the larger good of the institution, considering the fact that the teachers who were terminated were either having no workload or were into the business of instigating the students. New appointments have already been made and many more are in the pipeline.
Furthermore, the project director and finance officer , who had caused a total standstill in the university's infrastructure development, have been removed. This is simply a clean up process where the weeds have been eliminated. The healthiest of the plants can't survive when you have the weeds around. And let me add that no well informed NLU O student is complaining either.
Interestingly, no one has responded to my earlier request (made twice) to provide us with names of the new faculty who have allegedly been hired.
Do please share.
Best wishes,
Kian
But it is not that he has fired only outsiders.
The names of 4 new law teachers are already confirmed, who have already joined or are to join in July, 2013.
Facts cannot change. They can either be properly represented or grossly misrepresented. I request you and all to get in touch with students, teachers and staff of NLUO to cross check on the information below.
Prof. Nagraj is on the job. Since his joining NLUO has gained reputation (some that he can be proud of and otherwise). Unfortunately during the reign of the founder VC, apart from making many arbitrary appointments (in excess) he also somehow manipulated the mass and got the seats filled (in some cases students left many other established NLUs). I guess it was just magic. There was no building to show....only the show of his and his appointed faculty academic credentials and class (not in all cases though). What an illusion he created. Can't be anything else as students and staff had only tears and retaliation to the news of his departure.
Then came lady Yudhistris (known for her righteousness, humour and smart thinking). Since she took over , NLUO got its buildings done but as some have already put it lost all pets of the founder and she had her own pets to wash her dishes, cook food, do her laundry and more often than not (washing her dirty linens in the open). She and her pets added the much needed relaxation to the staff and students as this time the word 'pet' had been redefined. As they say, some have only pets and few have MAD pets.
Well well well.... all good things do come to an end and so did her innovative administrative innings at NLUO. The academic front was of course untouched as she took classes outside the classroom and never went inside one. Celebrations went uninterrupted and people finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
Yes. It was a bright light. Prof. Naagraj took over. It was a good day after almost 1 year of academic and administrative dip. This thread regarding termination of a few faculties in my opinion is solely financial and thus a matter that was to be and therefore is the university's prerogative. It must be quite the financial gain. With the buildings in place, an experienced VC in place, few jurists in place and some other ancillaries in place, it was the day of reckoning today at Day 1 of admissions.
The figures: BALLB - 37 admissions and BBALLB - 15. A lot to think about. The highest paid VC in the country (Rs. 30000 over and above UGC scale) has to to put his thinking cap on now. Anyways, I have never understood what they teach in BBALLB (Marketing to professionals who cannot market their profession). In my opinion, NLUO should take the bold step to abolish BBALLB and focus on the real law education i.e. BALLB. This would save them money and a whole lot of embarrassment.
As I have said before, please check the facts first hand and then draw your own conclusions.
You are not incorrect when you say scrapping the BBA course will save money spent on management faculty. However, that is a narrow and short term view at best. Universities aim to grow and have various disciplines, in order to become a seat of learning and cross-disciplinary / multi-disciplinary discourse. When you say BBA should not be taught to lawyers who cannot market their own profession, you are assuming BBA is about marketing only. How about students who do not wish to pursue social sciences and would like to combine management studies with law? And how about considering the fact that lawyers need to understand commercials? Learning about management, operations, accounts, quantitative techniques, etc. helps to develop understanding of commercials, which could be an asset for a lawyer in these changing times, when clients are refusing to put up with lawyers who are all about the law and are unable to appreciate business side of things.
Food for thought.
But the admissions anyway will happen for two days as per the schedule. So why to see the numbers today?