Varsity withdraws termination notices of 3 faculty members

Ambika Sharma

Solan, September 14

With only six law students remaining enrolled with the tainted Manav Bharti University, which is embroiled in a fake degree scam, the move to withdraw termination notices of three faculty members of humanities, computer science and management streams has put a question mark on its working.

The university has six law students and five faculty members, three of them pertaining to other streams.

The government appointed an administrator to oversee the varsity affairs in 2020 to help out the students. No admission has been made after 2019 as fresh admissions were banned by the HP Private Universities Regulatory Commission in 2020.

Except law, which is a four-year course, management and computer science courses run by the university were of two-year duration that ended in 2021. A student is permitted two chances to clear any supplementary examination a year after the completion of the course. Hence no management or computer science student will appear for any supplementary exam now.

University officials said, “Ninety-five employees have been laid off so far and the last batch of seven employees comprising three faculty members for humanities, computer science and management stream and helping staff were retrenched on August 10, after the expiry of the three-month notice period,” they added.

Now, the termination withdrawal orders have put an undue monetary burden on the university resources.

Administrator Narinder Chauhan, who took over the reins of the university on September 1, confirmed that the notices issued to seven employees, including three faculty members, have been withdrawn. “They will be laid off over the next six months after the work assigned to them, including clearing of supplementary exams, by the students is completed,” he added.

“Efforts will be made to close the university by March next year as fresh admissions are banned,” he said.