Achi news desk-
A senior official at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (MGAHV), a central university in Wardha, is facing contempt of court proceedings for allegedly denying campus access to a student expelled by the university but granted interim relief by the Bombay High Court (HC).
A bench of Justices Nitin Sambara and Abhi Mantri of the Nagpur bench of the HC on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to university registrar Darbhesh Kataria and asked him to remain present in court on Monday next week. Niranjan Oberoi, the student, was expelled along with five of his peers earlier this year, following their protest against the “illegal” appointment of then vice-chancellor Bhimaraya Matri.
Contempt petition and campus restrictions: Ongoing turmoil at MGAHV
While the university claimed the students were ‘playing into the hands of anti-national elements’, the court later stayed the case against Oberoi and another expelled student. In his contempt petition, Aubrey claimed that despite a court order in his favor, the university prevented him from entering campus.
According to him, every time he tried to enter the campus, the security guards stopped him and said that they were directed to do so from a higher place. He also wrote multiple e-mails to the university authorities, but to no avail. When FPJ reached out to Kataria for comment, he said he was busy and asked to be contacted later. Over the past few months, MGAHV has witnessed an upheaval around the VC position.
Controversy and legal battle surrounding the appointment of VC in the central university
Rajneesh Kumar Shukla quit as chancellor of the central university in August last year following a controversy over his alleged conversations with a woman. After that, the VC charge was provisionally transferred to Karunyakara Lella, a professor at the institute. However, two months later, President Draupadi Murmu, who is the chancellor of the university, appointed Metri, director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Nagpur, as the VC’s appointment. Metri faced opposition from some students who staged an offline and online protest.
They alleged that the appointment violated university rules that required the university’s senior-most professor to become VC during the interim period. However, the institute attacked the instigators and issued expulsion letters. Lela, the senior most professor at MGAHV, also moved the HC against the President’s appointment order. Last month, the court canceled Matri’s appointment while allowing Mormo to make a new appointment to the position.
