Law Dept Secy appointed interim HNLU VC following Dr Sukhpal Singh’s departure

Two days after the Chhattisgarh High Court quashed the 2014 term extension of Dr Sukhpal Singh as Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur, Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi has directed the appointment of an interim VC until a new appointment is made to the post..To this end, the Justice Tripathi, who is ex-officio Chancellor of the University, has ordered that Ravishankar Sharma, Principal Secretary of the Law and Legislative Affairs Department, take over as the VC in addition to his other duties..Accordingly, the HNLU has also published a notification intimating the interim appointment. As per this notification, Sharma has been appointed as the VC of HNLU as of 1.04 pm today..The interim appointment follows students’ protests which commenced on the night of August 27, following word that Dr. Sukhpal Singh may contest the High Court order quashing his term extension..On Monday, a Division Bench of the Chhattisgarh High Court held that the Executive Council of HNLU had recommended the extension of Dr. Singh’s tenure prematurely, before they had the power to do so under the HNLU Act, 2003. In effect, his tenure as HNLU’s VC beyond March 2016 was invalidated..While demanding that Dr. Sukhpal Singh demit office in compliance with the High Court’s order, student representatives also raised additional grievances including the following:.Extension of Library timingsThat Wardens of the Halls of Residence be independent and not an academic representativeAppointment of a recruiting officer to fill any vacancy that persists amongst the faculty/administrationConstitution of a review commission to review the working of the UniversityThat students must be provided channels to give feedback to the faculty membersA student manual of all the rules of the University must be consolidated.To this effect, HNLU’s Student Bar Association had also issued a statement explaining their demands. The same was shared with Bar & Bench over email by student representatives..Read full statement issued by the SBA:.Read Order passed by the University Chancellor appointing interim VC:.Read University Notification appointing interim VC: