NUJS Kolkata students have been collecting evidence of possible administrative malfunctioning at the university, including asking for the resignation of a staff member they have accused of “embezzling” university funds, and clamouring for the executive council (EC) to consider its petition of “loss of confidence” in the VC.
Students believed they had found discrepancies in the financial accounts of the college and last week, the current student body president and vice president and a few other student representatives, “barged into the office” of the college’s registrar, Surajit Mukhopadhyay, demanding his resignation, Mukhopadhyay told Legally India.
The student body president declined to confirm or deny the incident, or comment to Legally India about the matter.
NUJS VC Ishwara Bhatt said: “Students wanted information so it was made available to them.” He declined to comment further saying that the matter of allegations against the registrar was “pending before the EC”.
The registrar told Legally India: “There were students who [were given permission to] go and inspect [university documents]. The very next day they come over to my office and say, we give you 24 hours notice, we have decided you should resign. I said students can’t ask for my resignation. The executive council appoints and the executive council will dismiss [those appointed].”
“All documents were made open to them. They forced themselves into offices. The accounts office was overrun by students - students coming in and demanding that we want to [inspect] now at this very moment,” he added.
The registrar said he planned to raise the issue of this incident in the next EC meeting, which is scheduled for 8 February. He and other sources at NUJS confirmed that it is the first time in the history of the law school that students are inspecting university administration documents.
Students have so far also inspected other university records such as reports on academic standards and review of the academic staff, university sources confirmed.
Musing about the allegation, Mukhopadhyay commented: “Even today it is not fit for an academic to go into a mud-slinging match with the students. You have to dissuade them and to have to make them understand. The fact that the students were showing [as damning evidence] an audit report which is published [and not confidential] and which carries my signature along with two more signatories, shows that I am not a professional criminal and that they are so puerile.”
He added that he saw the incident as a “staged show” and an opposing faction’s “attempt to deflect attention from other [issues] at the university”, by “leaking some files” to the students.
NUJS official spokesperson Prof Ruchira Goswami commented that while the students had demanded the resignation of the registrar, after faculty engaged in dialogue the students agreed that an independent “inquiry into all financial dealings of university” and asking for “transparency” would be more constructive than demanding immediate resignations. The university has cooperated, documents have been provided to students and the matter would probably get taken up by the executive council on 8 February, she said, if the students submitted a written complaint.
The student initiative to probe accounts follows NUJS alumni having launched an online petition three weeks ago, expressing their “loss of confidence” in the present vice chancellor’s (VC) competence to run the university and requesting the chancellor’s intervention in restoring its standards. The online petition has had 428 signatories to date and sources claimed that students believe that on reaching 500 signatures it would be placed before the EC.
NUJS official spokesperson Prof Ruchira Goswami said that there was no official university position or comment she could provide on the petition.
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I really hope next time you do some more research before coming with a news, that too almost after a month.
1. Any enquiry must start from 10 years ago, when a much-hated person was Registrar and when the CPIM was in power, and when contracts were given to businessmen with links to the CPIM.
2. The students should not wait for 500 signatories. They will never get 500 signatories. The petition has been stuck on 400 signatories for the past 2 weeks. 400 signatories is enough.
3. The students must approach someone like Amit Mitra or Derek O'Brien. As much as I dislike the Trinamool Congress, they will at least weed out the pro-CPM corrupt elements within 24 hours, and they might just push for someone neutral like Justice Ruma Pal to be made VC. I would like to see if the Registrar will show so much audacity if the Trinamool Congress goes after him.
4. The issue is now bigger than NUJS. Someone has been accused of embezzlement of public money and causing willful loss to the state. Nothing short of a CBI probe will do, and arrests must be made. It is quite possible that a Commonwealth games-like scam has been talking place for over 10 years, where NUJS has been systematically looted to fill the coffers of the CPIM, with certain officials at NUJS taking a 10% cut.
5. I am unable to understand why the reporter has used the soft term "administrative malfunctioning". The students have accused him of a CRIME.
www.legallyindia.com/201301043346/Law-schools/nujs-ec-gets-fortune-teller-on-wb-cms-recommendation
We want CBI and CVC to step in NUJS and arrest all the culprits for polluting NUJS and making scam with the money of the students.
One wonders whether the same story will happen again
APPEAL TO HON'BLE CJI - Please direct CBI and CVC to make an enquiry and submit a report to you.
www.legallyindia.com/Blogs/clearing-the-air-against-registrar-nujs
Which raises the question: why did LI publish such a shoddy report? Shouldn't you have done your homework and published these facts? It's really sad how the quality of journalism on this site has deteriorated. You should at least now do a proper report and seek comment from EC members, faculty members who quit, students who saw the documents etc. Buying a chair for Rs 11,000 and a bulb for Rs 48,000? The CBI must be brought in at once.
Thank you for your comment.
Notice the words "ostensibly" and "apparently" in Kian's comment? Those words take away from the credibility of information published in that blog.
Had the parties we reached out to cooperated then instead of declining to comment altogether (as is mentioned in the story)there would have been a shot at credible information on financials coming out instead of a dubious anonymous blog.
Wouldn't imagine how the anonymous blog route is more preferred than speaking to journalists who are anyway going to find out what happened and run the story with or without your comment, but at NUJS this has painfully and unreasonably been the case for far too long, as is reflected not only in the negligible comment from the VC and the "no comment" from the student body in this one but even in our other stories.
Best wishes,
Prachi
We refrained from approaching the press because it was an internal matter and I don't see why we should have "commented".
Our primary interest is education in a premier institution and we are under no moral obligation to comment on every issue which originates in the institution
However, since the registrar decided to take it up with the Press and term it a conspiracy, much like Tarun Tejpal, I had to write out to clear the turn of events.
Cheers!
John Grisham
This is plot to damage image of Respected VC Sir and Respected Registrar Sir by vested interest persons who thinks that having 1 year LLM foreign degree and talking good English means you become great and better than persons having 2 year LLM degree from India from top-ranked college where many Honble Judges have studied. There is no need for CBI enquiry because all account have been done in total transparent manner. May be we need CBI enquiry against students.
You write : "There is no need for CBI enquiry because all account have been done in total transparent manner." Is it Really ??????
You need to wait for some time when the people will be grilled
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