Delhi HC stays mandatory attendance policy for JNU faculty

The Delhi High Court this week stayed Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) decision on compulsory marking of daily attendance for its faculty through a biometric system..“..decision taken on July 13, 2018 in 146 A meeting of the Academic Council qua item ‘any other’, and approval of Executive Council dated August 23, 2018 in minutes of 275th meeting qua item 6.9 shall remained stayed.”, the Court ordered..Any subsequent decisions/proceedings pursuant to the decision taken in the two meetings have also been stayed by the Court..The order was passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait in petitions preferred by two JNU faculty, Dr. Ayesha Kidwai and Dr. Pratiksha Baxi, challenging the new mandatory attendance policy in JNU for its teaching staff..The JNU administration has been asked to file its response to the challenge..Revamping its liberal attendance policy, JNU’s Academic Council in its meeting dated July 13, 2018, had mandated compulsory marking of attendance by its faculty. The said decision approved by the JNU’s Executive Council in its meeting held on August 23, 2018..Based on the principle of “no sign, no pay”, the new attendance policy had also linked non-compliance of the same with disbursal of salary..Earlier this week, the High Court had stayed the operation of a November 13, 2018 circular issued by the varsity pursuant to its mandatory attendance policy. The said circular stated that in case a faculty failed to mark his/her attendance, his/her leave requests would not be entertained by JNU administration..on Friday, the original decision to introduce mandatory attendance was stayed by the Court..The Court has also clarified that in case of any unauthorized absence, the JNU administration would proceed in terms of the rules that existed prior to its Academic Council’s July 13 decision..The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta with Advocates Yashraj Singh Deora, Govind Manoharan and Abhik Chimni..JNU was represented by Advocate Monica Arora..The matter will be next heard on May 3.