RGNUL Patiala vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Paramjit Jaswal has ended his tenure of more than nine years today as a search process is ongoing for his permanent replacement.
Jaswal has confirmed to us that he has joined SRM University in Sonepat as vice-chancellor (VC) of the entire university, which offers engineering, management, medicine, law and other science and humanities degrees, including PhDs.
It launched in Sonepat, Haryana in 2013, and in Sikkim in 2014, with its precursor SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, having been deemed a university in 2002.
His tenure at RGNUL was to end on 6 February 2021.
The interim replacement not without controversy
At RGNUL, he has been replaced in the interim by the most senior professor currently at the national law school, Prof Anand Pawar.
Pawar, however, also already holds a number of senior positions: he is RGNUL’s dean of student welfare and controller of exams, which one student told us was not ideal, in terms of separation of administrative powers.
There is also potential controversy over a sexual harassment complaint having been filed against Pawar in 2018 by an RGNUL faculty member, which we have confirmed from two sources in the know.
The faculty member had approached the Punjab & Haryana high court in January 2019 to ensure constitution of the RGNUL internal complaints committee (ICC) in accordance with University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.
It is understood that the RGNUL ICC complaint is still pending and remains to be fully heard.
We have reached out to Pawar for comment.
We understand choices for the post may have been limited, since the VC position has to be occupied by a professor and apart from Jaswal, there was only the interim registrar Prof Naresh Kumar Vats.
And since the registrar and VC position can’t be occupied by the same person either, Pawar may have been the only available choice, other than potentially drafting in a judge or administrative officer as acting VC from outside.
The search for a permanent VC is on
As first reported by The Tribune last month, a search committee has been seeking a new permanent VC.
Nalsar Hyderabad vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Faizan Mustafa has been nominated by the RGNUL executive council to head up the search committee, with two other nominations of members to be made by the chairman of the UGC and the RGNUL chancellor.
9 years at RGNUL
Jaswal had taken over as VC at RGNUL after joining from HNLU Raipur in 2011.
While at RGNUL, students had repeatedly butted heads with Jaswal.
This included student protests, the removal of a controversial administrative officer (and the apparent stonewalling of attempts by students to obtain a related formal inquiry report) and more recently also questions about RGNUL's finances, which the state government has also pursued.
In particular, we understand that the state government has been aggrieved that it has been funding RGNUL - which according to a student therefore enjoys good infrastructure and facilities - but that RGNUL also had Rs 48 crore sitting unutilised in a fixed deposit account.
However, Punjab state’s accountant general audit of RGNUL’s finances has settled all substantial paragraphs regarding the use of state funds at RGNUL from 2006 until 2018 (see audit reports below).
RGNUL under Jaswal has also begun posting minutes of its governing bodies on its website from mid-2019 (though it has still not published its full financial documents online).
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Meanwhile Amita dhanda was set to retire I think two days back has been given extension by Faizan Mustafa. Last moment decision. Faizan has been quickly doling out promotions at nalsar.
Here is nalsars website describing her as dean of academic affairs www.nalsar.ac.in/faculty/AmitaDhanda-profile.html
We’re truly post fact here huh.
The link below is the correct one and will take you to the university website.
www.nalsar.ac.in/amita-dhanda
I do not have any issue with anyone becoming Dean or the vice chancellor. This is just to supply correct information.
Didn't Registrar Vats brief the Chancellor and his retinue that AP is facing SH charges?
Maybe PJ knows something that we don't. Such as, the Chancellor will be leaving for Delhi soon.
- Nandimath @ NLSIU
- Gurpur @ Symbi
- Afzal Wani @ GGSIP
- Vijender @ NLU Nagpur
- Nigam @ Munjal
That is what was my point. If everyone is corrupt why single out this poor guy at RGNUL. I bet an audit of any other law school would throw up similar issues. And if incompetency is added even saints like Sudhir K should be jailed.
You can't bring about change on generic grounds like this simply because nobody in government will support such causes which may bite them in the back.
Till such time as there is a demand-supply mismatch in legal education gullible law students will continue preferring these government law schools where they will have no choice but to put up with the likes of Pamamjeet.
- The person must have a track record of integrity: No prior charges of corruption, sexual harassment etc.
- The person must promise to comply with the RTI Act and not delay and cut corners.
- The person must have a strategic plan to improve faculty and involve more guest faculty.
- The person must have a strategic plan to make RGNUL a top 5 NIRF university and present it to the students.
- The person must have prior experience with the NLU system: either as a teacher, admin or alum. A person with pure TLC exposure and absolutely zero NLU exposure is undesirable
- The person must have a strong track record of research and publications.
- The person should preferably have international exposure, either through studies or teaching or research fellowships.
[...]
Having spent 5 years there, I can guarantee that it will be tough. No person can be as rigid, megalomaniac and / or egoistical as Prof Dr. Col PS Jaswal. Why does RGNUL have a bad reputation? That is a first. None of the NLUs which came around the same time (except NLU D) are better than RGNUL in any relevant metric (graduate employability, academics, infrastructure).
"Certain students protested against Prof Jaswal because of personal vendettas and gave the college a very bad name."
Wow! Do you even know what the protests were for? High handedness of the administration backed by VC. A student was suspended without following due procedure. Do read LI reports or newspaper. :-)
A lot of bad things came out in the media, such as smoking/alcohol/drug use by students, ragging juniors, coming back late nights after parties, poor academic performance etc.
It is unfortunate that students smoke and drink. If you start throwing students and colleges for this reason to the gallows, you probably will not have any college or many students left. They are 17-22 year olds who are experimenting. Cut them slack. Most of the top universities have alcohol being sold inside their campus. There is hardly a top university in the world where students and faculty don't party. How can that even be relevant? What is poor academic performance? Please do tabulate the number of students who clear judiciary, other competitive exams, get admitted to and finish their LLMs from top universities abroad.
"Better not to say more, because even more serious offences are there by students which outside world does not know."
Yes, and you sir know about it? Why don't you come out and list them out? By protecting criminals, you are becoming an accomplice. The way you've preached, I don't think that you'd want to be morally corrupt like the delinquent RGNUL students are.
Seriously, Kian?
So it makes perfect sense for him to go to RGNUL.
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