No funds to pay Dec salary, PU tells HC

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7

Nearly two months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu cognisance of a news report carried in these columns on the financial troubles of Panjab University, the Bench was today told that the university did not have the funds to release the December salary to the staff.

Appearing on behalf of the university, senior advocate Girish Agnihotri said the institution was staring at a deficit of no less than Rs 101 crore. Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain, on the other hand, asserted that the matter would be taken up for consideration during a meeting of the University Grants Commission, scheduled for November 15.

The Bench, during the course of the hearing, observed that the expenditure of running the university was on the rise. As such, the Centre and the Punjab Government were required to consider a proportionate increase in the grants. Taking up the matter, the Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Lisa Gill fixed November 21 as the next date of hearing.

Justice Mahesh Grover of the High Court had earlier asserted that Panjab University’s stakeholders were constantly obstructing its efforts to be declared a Central University. Justice Grover had asserted that its stakeholders had done little to share the financial burden, and its declaration as a Central University could possibly have ameliorated the situation.

In his detailed note, Justice Grover had asserted that evidently if the doom was predicted so soon, the institution must be in a state of decay already. Referring to the Vice-Chancellor’s statement on the university being in the hands of the mafia, Justice Grover had added it, too, could not be wished away. The cumulative impact of both statements would invite the concern of all associated with the premier institution.

As an alumnus, Justice Grover said he was venturing to take suo motu notice of the serious state of affairs, particularly the apprehension of the Vice-Chancellor on shutting down the university for lack of funds.

Referring to the news report, Justice Grover asserted that it carried the statement of the Panjab University Vice-Chancellor that the university was likely to shut down by January next year if the Centre did not clear the funds.

Justice Grover asserted that it raised an issue of pre-eminent concern about the premier historical institution, which had produced men of stature in all fields. Justice Grover added that the statement had to be accorded primacy as it was coming from a person of the Vice-Chancellor’s stature, an assignment entrusted to a man of eminence.

Before parting with the note, Justice Grover said in his considered view, it would be the bounded duty of all to see that the university, which had been in existence since pre-Partition days, did not hasten towards demise for lack of funds.