Indian Law Institute (ILI)
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Indian Law Institute (ILI) Delhi director S Sivakumar may lose his post at ILI if his experience teaching PG courses in law, as a full time lecturer, is found wanting by the High Court (HC) of Delhi.
Delhi HC judges SK Kaul and Inderneet Kaur asked Sivakumar to furnish records of his teaching experience, within three weeks, after ILI’s executive committee validated his appointment despite right to information (RTI) replies from NUJS Kolkata and KLA Trivandrum disputing his claim that his teaching experience at those colleges made him eligible for the post at ILI.
The bench said:
This in our view is a serious matter as there may be an element of perjury either on behalf of KLA or on behalf of the director. We call upon him to file an affidavit setting out which is the date when he joined KLA and what courses he taught and for which period. [TOI]
The Delhi high court directed Indian Law Institute (ILI) Delhi to reconsider the eligibility of its officiating director Dr S Sivakumar for the post, after it was alleged that he had fudged facts about his qualification at the time of applying for the post of research professor at the institute in 2005.
Sivakumar had represented that he had 10 years of combined post-graduate (PG) teaching experience at NUJS Kolkata and Kerala Law Academy, however both the institutes had furnished RTI replies to lawyer Jose Meleth stating that he had taught only LLB courses there. Meleth filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi high court challenging Sivakumar’s appointment.
ILI defended the appointment saying that 10 years of PG teaching experience was not sacrosanct and that the director has vast research experience making him suitable for the job. However the bench of justices SK Kaul and Vipin Sanghi directed ILI’s executive council to reconsider his eligibility since he relied on false information to stake claim to a post in the institute first in 2005.
The court fixed 30 November for the next hearing.
ILI’s ex-officio president is the Chief Justice of India while the Attorney General of India and the law minister are its vice-presidents. [TOI]