High Court pulled up Nagpur University vice-chancellor

Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Monday pulled up Nagpur University vice-chancellor SN Pathan saying that procedure adopted by him
while appointing Pradip Bute as a reader was "not transparent". A single-judge bench of justice Ravindra Chavan dismissed Bute's plea challenging chancellor SC Jamir's orders dismissing him from reader's post in university's computer science department. Bute now has no way but to give up his job unless he decides to appeal the judgment. ZA Haq appeared for the petitioner while Bhanudas Kulkarni and Sachin Khandekar represented the respondents.

The court observed that evaluation of Bute's research work should have been done before rather than doing it during interviews that gave an impression that petitioner's selection was not `transparent'. In a consolation to Bute, however, the court dismissed respondents' contentions that Bute was neither qualified for reader's post nor did he possess a good academic record.

Bute had challenged chancellor's orders on which the court had issued notice to Jamir, Pathan and NU registrar Subhash Belsare. A notice was also served to Rakesh Ramteke who had earlier challenged Bute's appointment to the reader's post in high court as well as with the chancellor. During last hearing, the court had referred petitioner's plea to a single bench observing that since the chancellor was quasi-judicial authority, it would be appropriate to place the matter before a single judge.

The dispute started when Ramteke, who was in the race for the same post, alleged connivance between Bute and Pathan that led to violation of norms. Subsequently, on Ramteke's plea, the court on June 17 directed Jamir to decide the case within two months since it was pending with him. On August 7, the chancellor issued a letter to the university directing it to terminate Bute's services from the reader's post within a month after serving him with a notice.

Jamir's letter, issued under section 76 (7) of Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, had passed severe strictures against Pathan even guiding him on how the vice-chancellor should act. It lambasted Pathan for acting partially and making undue favour towards Bute when other, more eligible and highly-qualified, candidates were available.