JOIN US'Whistle-blower' prof of Hindu College gets notice
Hindu College teacher Ratan Lal has been served a show cause notice for going public with an allegation that the appointment of guest lecturers in excess of the sanctioned strength is costing the college a fortune.
He had said that the college spent an extra Rs 60 lakh in the academic year 2013-14 alone.
In the notice issued to Lal on Thursday, college principal Pradumn Kumar said he “committed a gross breach of indiscipline” by talking to reporters.
The college administration accused Lal of using his Scheduled Castes identity as a shield to make insinuations.
“We have been assuring you that this college does not discriminate on the basis of caste or religion of individual,” the show cause notice said.
But Lal, an Associate Professor of History, alleged he was being cornered for being a whistle-blower.
“I have been raising issues of over admissions, inflated workload and illegitimate appointment of guest lecturers, which violate Delhi University and the University Grants Commission rules,” the professor said.
In this year’s admission, the History Department had ended up admitting two times more students than the approved strength.
The college had therefore decided to hire five additional guest teachers and create two sections to facilitate teaching.
Launching into protest against the college management’s decision to hire guest faculties, Lal had shunned teaching.
“I had told them that I would teach only when I am offered a combined class,” he said, adding that the college had open floodgates for applicants by not being conservative in revising the cut-off criteria for admission.
The principal had told Deccan Herald that he received some 14 complaints from students that classes were not being taken.
“The principal is not able to tolerate that a person coming from the weaker section of the society is questioning his illegitimate action and functioning, which certainly shows his prejudiced mindset,” Lal said, adding that he is being deprived of his “legitimate” duty to teach the entire class.