Dr. BC Nirmal, the official Vice-Chancellor of National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi, has not received his salary and allowances for more than fifteen months.
Professor Nirmal, who was forced to go on leave for a month in May 2017 following allegations of maladministration, was subsequently not allowed to re-join the office of VC.
And now, he has suffered a heart attack at Ranchi following which he had to be rushed to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. He is now out of danger.
Prof. Nirmal has also sent a legal notice to the acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, who is the Chancellor of NUSRL. Aside from refuting various allegations against him, Prof. Nirmal in his notice has sought the release of back wages and allowances from May 2017 besides permission to re-join his duties.
He has stated that since he has neither been suspended nor removed from office, withholding his salary and allowances is unjustified, illegal and unconstitutional.
Professor Nirmal is faced with allegations of inaction and being responsible for protests that paralysed the functioning of the University in early 2017. He was also asked to show cause as to why action should not be taken against him, pertaining to the appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff.
Prof. Nirmal had responded to these allegations by stating that the Recruitment Committee had vindicated his stand on the appointment of teaching staff by regularising all those he had appointed as Teaching Assistants. He added that he had followed established procedure in all appointments made by him.
According to some sources, the reason for keeping Prof Nirmal at bay was to orchestrate a recruitment scam. It was revealed that the Executive Committee of the University met shortly after Professor Nirmal took a month’s leave on the advice of the High Court, and passed two important resolutions. One was to change the age of superannuation of the Vice-Chancellor from 70 years to 65 years, and the other was to advertise for permanent faculty members.
Further, the appointment of the VC in-charge Gautam Choudhury has done little in the way of improving things at NUSRL, with protests similar to the one leading to Prof Nirmal going on leave being rekindled three months into Chaudhary’s tenure, for the same reasons. As opposed to hearing the students’ grievances, the administration had chosen to deal with the protests with a rather heavy hand by deploying law enforcement agencies on campus.
What makes things more intriguing is the fact that despite more than a year having passed since the show cause notice was issued to him, there has been no communication to Prof. Nirmal as regards the charges framed. No committee has been constituted to initiate an inquiry against him.
Bar & Bench had spoken to Prof. Nirmal in February this year when he said,
“All I want is an opportunity to end this humiliation and make a swift and graceful exit.”