PU Senate stamp on inquiry panel members

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 17

The Panjab University (PU) Senate approved the names of the members of a committee formed to look into allegations of sexual harassment of a woman senator against Vice-Chancellor (VC) Arun Kumar Grover.

The VC recused from the discussion on the agenda item while the complainant woman professor, who is a member of the Senate too, was not present during the deliberations.

Prof Ronki Ram chaired the meeting. It was resolved that the names which the Syndicate had approved in its meeting on January 10, would be sent to Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the Chancellor of the university, for approval along with their biodata. In addition to that, a nominee would be invited from the National Commission for Women (NCW).

Seven members, all belonging to the Ashok Goyal group,  said the Chancellor should appoint a separate independent committee to probe the charges. A total of 17 members were present in the meeting.

Both Ashok Goyal and Prof Keshav Malhotra complained about distortions in the minutes of meeting of the Syndicate held on January 10 for finalising the names. Prof Navdeep Goyal, Prof Rajat Sandhir, Amit Joshi, Anu Chatrath and DPS Randhawa justified the composition of the committee, while Prof Chaman Lal, Prof Shelley Walia opposed it.

Composition of committee

Either, Jyoti Arora, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Haryana; or Navraj Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary (Vigilance), Haryana, would be the chairperson. 

Senior-most woman professor in the PU Meenakshi Malhotra and existing chairperson of the Panjab University Committee against Sexual Harassment (PUCASH) Manvinder Kaur, from the Department-cum-Centre for Women's Studies and Development, are retained. Others who have been retained in the committee approved by the Senate included Prof Pam Rajput, fellow; Principal of PGGCG-11; Anita Kaushal, a fellow; Prof Devi Sirohi, former chairperson of the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights; Gurjit Singh Malhi, a fellow; and Justice Harbans Lal (retd) from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

CMJ University issue deferred

The validity of degrees awarded by CMJ University of Meghalaya came up for discussion in the Senate. Ashok Goyal said it was duty of the PU to check the validity of the degrees as it had been favouring a few while discriminating against others, who are from CMJ University. Prof Navdeep Goyal countered that CMJ was a valid university as per the UGC and no other university could comment about the validity of its degrees. As CMJ has been issuing clarifications that PhD degrees issued by them are genuine, the Senate decided to approach the Meghalaya Government about these clarifications. Prof Grover said marks awarded by the university were much higher as compared to neighbouring universities.