Facing removal, V-C of Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidyapith moves court

The order came hours before the trustees of Vidyapith were to hold a meeting to decide the fate of V-C Khimani

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a petition moved by the vice chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidyapith, who is facing removal from the post on account of UGC's decision that due procedures were not followed in his appointment.

The single bench of justice Biren Vaishnav while issuing notices to UGC and Gujarat Vidyapith also directed that "no coercive steps pursuant to the Minutes of the 554th meeting of the UGC in context of the removal of the petitioner as Vice-Chancellor be taken."

The order came hours before the trustees of Vidyapith were to hold a meeting to decide the fate of Khimani. "When it came for the discussion, we were informed about the court's proceeding and since the matter is now sub-judice we decided to wait for the final decision of the court," one of the trustees told DH.

Khimani moved the court days after the commission uploaded minutes of its 554th meeting on its website. The minutes of the meeting, held in November 2021, stated that it had been decided to direct the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith to remove Khimani immediately in view of several procedural lapses.

"...there are procedural lapses in the appointment of Dr. Rajendra Khimani as Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith (Deemed to be University) and ii) the Fact-Finding Committee of UGC constituted separately has found that Dr. Rajendra Khimani was also responsible for certain lapses in the administrative and financial functioning of the Gujarat Vidyapith as Registrar during the period from 01.04.2004 to 30.04.2019," the minutes of the meeting stated. From 2004 to 2019, Khimani served the varsity as its registrar.

The minutes further added, "The Commission resolved to direct the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith (Deemed to be University) to remove Dr. Rajendra Khimani as Vice-Chancellor with immediate effect. The Commission further resolved that failing to comply with the directions of the Commission would attract penal action in accordance with the UGC Act, 1956 and the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2019, including that of withholding of grants."

Vidyapith has maintained that it has not received any correspondence from the commission regarding the removal of Khimani. Whereas, Khimani has contended that UGC's decision is illegal. On this aspect, Justice Vaishnav noted after going through the minutes of the meeting, "Prima facie, this indicates that the respondent No.2 University is left with no choice but to remove the Vice-Chancellor without “following the due process” which would at least require following the basic principles of natural justice."

Some of the objections UGC has raised against Khimani's appointment is his experience as a professor and allegation of "financial lapses" while he was the registrar. Last year, Khimani's appointment was revoked following UGC's objection for "procedural lapses" in appointing search committee members and in view of a vigilance inquiry against him. Vidyapith formed another search committee by including a UGC representative Navish Sheth. Khimani was selected again and appointed the V-C. Sheth had dissented against Khimani.

Over the last several years, Vidyapith is facing a severe financial crunch as UGC is not releasing funds citing several lapses in management. For the past two days, pensioners have been staging protests in the campus demanding release of funds.

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