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Nuals Kochi chancellor asks CM to inspect college’s finances for alleged multi-crore mismanagement

Nuals buildings: Possibly scammy?
Nuals buildings: Possibly scammy?
Nuals Kochi’s chancellor has asked for an inspection of the law school after its vice chancellor, Dr Sheena Shukkur, made allegations of financial mismanagement at the university during the term of former vice chancellor NK Jayakumar, as first reported by Live Law.

Kerala high court chief justice Ashok Bhushan, who is chancellor of the university, wrote to Kerala chief minister Oomen Chandy on 3 October seeking an order of inspection of the university’s financial transactions between January 2010 and November 2013.

Bhushan wrote in his complaint to the chief minister that he had received a report from Shukkur dated 23 September, containing a December 2013 internal audit on the law school and minutes of Nuals’ executive council meetings. According to this report, the law school had made excess payments, deviated from work orders, brought down work quality and broken laws and regulations in the construction of new buildings on the Nuals campus.

Bhushan cited Shukkur’s letter, which stated:

The issues being of such grave nature involving crores of rupees, it is inevitable to find out whether the University has suffered any loss.

Therefore, it is humbly requested to the Hon’ble Chancellor to invoke your Lordship’s powers as per Section 10 of the NUALS Act to order an inquiry to find out the financial loss to the university, if any. […]

Bhushan added in his letter that although the deviations and defects in the contracted work were or were due to be ratified by the executive council: “I fail to see that why the question of excess payment and other deviations which have been pointed out, cannot be looked into and examined afresh”

He also reproduced part of Shukkur’s report as follows:

“The deviations pointed out in the internal audit report on civil constructions are as follows:

Total of deviations and extra items Rs 39017441.90 [Rs 3.9 crore]
Less deviations and extra item approved by executive council Rs 4450174.00 [Rs 45 lakh]
Unapproved deviations Rs 3,45,67,267.90 [Rs 3.5 crore]

Campus development is not yet complete. We have received UGC grant of Rs 2 crores for the campus development. Many of the projects are yet to be completed. Therefore the agreement was renewed by me on/with effect from 18.07.2014 for a period of six months. The Audit committee appointed by EC has recommended that in future, strict compliance of the terms of the agreement should be ensured and care should be taken to see that no statutory violation or violation of the terms of agreement will occur.

In the Executive Council meeting held on 16.09.2014, all the above deviations were ratified with the dissent of 4 members i.e. Advocate General (Shri Dandapani K.P.), Vice Chancellor (i/c), Adv K.A Balan and Adv. Zohra. The matter is brought to the notice of the Hon’ble Chancellor.”

A source with knowledge of the process told Legally India that six members in the Executive Council were in favour of ratifying the work of the construction contractor even during the term of former Nuals vice chancellor N Bala, despite the deviations pointed out in the audit report. The source said that Bala had resigned from the post of Nuals VC because of his opposition to such ratification. The members include chairperson of the Nuals trust Narayanan Iyer, Bar Council of Kerala chairperson Vinod Singh Cherian and Bar Council of India member TS Ajith, among others.

Shukkur declined to comment. Jayakumar did not pick up his phone when contacted.

Nuals alumnus Raghul Sudheesh commented in an email: “True that NUALS has been hit by an alleged financial scam but this is only tip of the ice berg. The University is in the hands of a [...] political nominee. [...] Her actions are probably aimed at the VC post that has been vacant for quite some time and it has to be remembered that it is the Chancellor who takes the final call on the Search Committee's report on new VC.”

At NUJS Kolkata, the college’s currently suspended registrar Surajit Mukhhopadhyay is facing inquiry on allegations of financial mismanagement. Mukhhopadhyay in turn has filed a writ petition against the college and VC.

NUALS chancellor letter by legallyindia

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