Delhi High Court quashes appointment of Prof Eqbal Hussain as officiating Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday quashed the appointment of Prof Eqbal Hussain as officiating Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia [MD Shani Ahmad Ansari & Anr v Jamia Millia Islamia & Ors]..Justice Tushar Rao Gedela held that Prof Hussain’s appointment to the post of pro-Vice-Chancellor and then officiating Vice-Chancellor, was contrary to law.“Since respondent no. 2 has not been appointed in terms of Statute, his continuation in the office of Vice Chancellor as the Officiating Vice Chancellor cannot be permitted further,” the Court held..The Court has asked the Visitor of the University to use its powers under the Jamia Millia Islamia Act to “immediately appoint, on an officiating capacity, an eligible person” as the Vice Chancellor. It added,“The appointment of the VC (Officiating)/ Administrator (Temporary) shall be done within a period of 1 week from the date of receipt of the present order. The initiation of appointment to the post of Vice Chancellor on regular basis shall commence not later than two weeks of the appointment of Vice Chancellor (Officiating)/ Administrator (Temporary) and be completed within 30 days thereafter.”.The Bench passed the order while dealing with two petitions seeking a declaration that Prof Hussain’s appointment was in “flagrant violation and total non-compliance” the Jamia Millia Islamia Act..The Court concluded that it is apparent that Hussain’s appointment was wrong.“It is to be kept in mind that the fact that the erstwhile VC [Vice Chancellor] was going to demit office due to expiry of her tenure by efflux of time was known to all and sundry. No explanation as to why steps in the ordinary course under Statute 2 of the Statutes of the University were not initiated well in time, has been placed on record.Moreover, the University in such situation was not powerless to appoint the senior most Professor as Officiating VC in terms of proviso to Clause (6) of Statute 2. This Court is acutely aware of the fact that the post of VC cannot be kept vacant having regard to the importance of the said post, both administratively and academically as well as for exercise of emergent powers, however, the appointments to such post have to be sacrosanct and above board.”.Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta along with Advocates Ankit Jain, Shailesh Tiwari, Aditya Tyagi, Tanisha Gopal and Nikita Sethi appeared for the petitioners in the case.Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose along with Advocates Shoaib Khan, Fahim Khan and Advait Ghosh represented Jamia Millia Islamia.Central Government Standing Counsel Monika Arora with Advocates Subhrodeep Saha, Jyoti Tiwari and Radhika K represented the Union of India.Advocates Dr Amit George, Mobashshir Sarwar and Adhishwar Sur appeared for the nominees of the Visitor.Advocates Apoorv Kurup and Gauri Goburdhun represented the University Grants Commission.Advocate Ankur Chibber represented Prof Eqbal Hussain..[Read Judgement]