Law Ministry writes to NALSAR Chancellor to look into discrepancies; former VC Prof Faizan Mustafa denies allegations

The Union Law Ministry recently asked the Chancellor of NALSAR, Hyderabad and Telangana High Court Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan to look into discrepancies that allegedly took place during the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor Prof Faizan Mustafa..This, after Hyderabad lawyer Mallesh Yadav wrote to Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju asking him to initiate a high-level enquiry into the matter..Harinder Pal Singh, Assistant Legal Advisor at the Law Ministry, had forwarded Yadav's representation to the Chancellor of NALSAR on August 23. The letter states that as Section 7(3) of the NALSAR Act, the Chancellor is empowered to conduct an inspection of the finances and administration of the University."Therefore, the same is being forwarded to you with request to take appropriate action at your end," the letter states..In his representation dated July 6, 2022, Yadav alleged that Prof Mustafa committed "unfair, malpractices, abuse of power, arbitrary practices, unlawful and unconstitutional conduct, cronyism in appointments and biased process adopted in running the University..." during his ten-year tenure as VC..The representation reads, "...there is no transparency in his functioning as a Vice Chancellor...especially in the appointment of faculty positions which were made by flagrantly violating the rules and procedure of law. When the RTI applications were filed on the recruitment, the University was reluctant to furnish the desired information.".Prof Mustafa, on his part, has denied all the allegations made by Yadav in his representation. In fact, he insists that an enquiry has not been ordered for, and that he would not be liable to face action taken against the University, if any, in light of his retirement, and given that decisions were made in consultation with other authorities."The Assistant Legal Advisor writing to the Chief Justice is not an order for enquiry. That decision is to be made by the Chief Justice... Since Prof Balakista Reddy has been the Registrar for 8 long years and is currently the Officiating VC at the University and Section 18 of the NALSAR Act states that the Registrar will be the Principal Adjutant of the Vice Chancellor, all administrative and financial decisions taken by the University VC are taken on the recommendation of the Registrar. So, if there are any orders passed from the Hon'ble Chief Justice Chancellor, or decisions taken in this regard, the Registrar who is currently the Officiating VC and party to all decisions would respond on behalf of the University.".Speaking to Bar & Bench, Prof Mustafa said that he followed all regulations during his tenure. Rebutting the allegation of cronyism in appointments, he said,"...In all our bodies, be it Executive Council, Academic Council or Finance Committee, there will always be a Chancellor nominee who is a retired Supreme Court judge or will be a retired Chief Justice of some High Court. In the Finance Committee and the Executive Council you have the government secretaries... All these people cannot be controlled by the Vice Chancellor, because they are external members. They represent the government. So, whatever I did, I did in accordance with the regulations of the University. There is not a single decision taken by me which is contrary to the regulations of the University. About the appointment, the Academic Council and the Executive Council decide the qualifications. In the Academic Council, it is a bigger body, you have most of the senior teachers of the University there. No teacher ever raised any dissent about any qualification. So whatever qualifications were required by the Academic Council and were approved by the Executive Council, they were advertised. Based on that qualification, a Selection Committee is constituted. In the Selection Committee also, there is always a nominee of the Chief Justice who will ensure that you are not unfair in any appointment, and everything is done as per law. So, I have not held a single Selection Committee where the Chief Justice’s nominee was not there. Section 17(2)(c) says that the Vice Chancellor shall be the appointing authority, but he will make appointments on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, in consultation with the Chief Justice, who is the Chancellor." .He elaborated that at every stage, the Vice-Chancellor’s actions are reviewed and examined by bodies like the Academic Council, the Finance Committee, the Executive Council, the General Council, and also by the Chief Justice. "The current Registrar, who is the Officiating Vice-Chancellor, is a party to every single decision. You cannot impose on me all the decisions which were taken. They were collectively taken. That is the point I’m trying to make. The mere fact that somebody has left over ₹100 crore in the University corpus shows what kind of financial management was there. Prior to my joining, there were barely any regulations. There were some very sketchy regulations, they were replaced with detailed regulations," Prof Mustafa added..Prof Mustafa went on to claim that these allegations were part of a motivated campaign against him, in light of the fact that he was recently being looked at for re-appointment as NALSAR VC."The mere fact that my name has been recommended by the Search Committee and the overwhelming support of students for me is also the cause of this motivated campaign - to ensure that I am not appointed, that's it. This is absolutely a motivated campaign, because so far, no decision has been made. It is a motivated effort to tarnish my image because I am in contention as per the Search Committee, even though I've left and joined my parent institution. They said that I speak on controversial topics. As a professor of law, this is what my duty is. I speak and write in the public domain. There is no secret statement by me or no secret video.".He further pointed out that this is not the first time Yadav has made such a complaint."This same person - Mallesh Yadav, has filed a similar complaint with some wild allegations to the High Court which was dismissed. The judge did not listen to him at all because he was objecting to a towering personality like Prof Upendra Baxi being in the Search Committee. They wanted some lesser mortal whom they could influence in his place. Similarly, they tried their best to ensure that my name is not recommended by the Search Committee. But the case was dismissed and the High Court said that the case was devoid of merit," Prof Mustafa concluded.