Clear in Law, clean in conscience, V-C Chaudhari to resume duty today
   Date :11-Apr-2024

V-C Chaudhari  
 
 
 
 
Staff Reporter
 
 
Dr Subhash Chaudhari will resume duty as Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), four weeks after the High Court order quashed the order of Chancellor of Maharashtra suspending him from his post. Dr Chaudhari, who is clear in conscience, got a clean chit from the High Court about a month ago. On the basis of some alleged irregularities in RTMNU, Chancellor Ramesh Bais had suspended Dr Chaudhari on February 21, 2024. The order was challenged by Dr Chaudhari in the High Court. While talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Dr Chaudhari said, “On Wednesday, the four weeks time got over. I shall resume my duty on Thursday. I haven’t given charge to anybody, so, there is no question to take back the charge from someone.” The Division Bench of Justice Mukulika Jawalkar and Justice Anil Kilor at Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court had observed that the procedure as prescribed under the Uniform Statute was not followed in the case of the petitioner (Dr Subhash Chaudhari) before issuing the impugned order, suspending the petitioner.
 
The Court, on the request of Deven Chauhan, Government Pleader, kept the judgment in abeyance for four weeks.
Post-four weeks, neither the Government has moved the Supreme Court nor has the order been stayed thereby paving the way for Chaudhari continuing as RTMNU V-C. There were options before the Government like seeking further time from High Court to once again issue him show cause notice or allow him to resume the duties. The State Government had sought time to challenge the order in Supreme Court. Why it failed to file a Special Leave Petition in four weeks? Government’s inaction has puzzled the academic circle. The matter becomes more interesting when it came to the fore that SLP was prepared and its draft was okayed from highest level. The swiftness showed by the Government while giving charge to Dr Prashant Bokare and the manner in which Government contested the petition, it was widely believed that Government would surely move to Supreme Court to obtain stay order over High Court verdict. Till filing of this report, no such petition was filed.
 
Dr Chaudhari became Vice-Chancellor in 2020. Nothing happened for next two years. In 2022, Senate members lodged a complaint against him with Chancellor. Calling the decision of dissolution of adjourned senate meeting of March 21, 2022 as illegal, the Senate members lodged the complaint against him. Members in the complaint had demanded that enquiry should be conducted into the entire episode and action should be taken against the Vice-Chancellor. The war between members of various bodies and Dr Subhash Chaudhari continued. In the letter it was alleged that Vice-Chancellor was not willing to answer certain issues. The members provided the list of such works —
1) V-C did not want to answer on MKCL issue. He has taken decision of alloting work to MKCL without floating tender. The then Vice-Chancellor in 2015 had removed MKCL from all the works of RTMNU as it failed to deliver results. University had cancelled all the agreements signed with MKCL. Unfortunately, the present Vice-Chancellor took the decision of bringing the company back to university bypassing Management Council. Vice-Chancellor had promised to have discussion on MKCL issue in the meeting which he did not do.
 
2 Vice-Chancellor has passed the illegal contract to the tune of Rs 3.38 crore for approach road construction, compound wall, RCC Road, pever blocks partition. The work was alloted to 5-6 contractors under Extension of Work without floating tenders. In September 2022, Chandrakant Patil, Higher and Technical Education Minister had constituted a one-member committee of Ajit Bawiskar, Deputy Secretary, Higher and Technical Education. He completed the enquiry into the alleged irregularities against its Vice-Chancellor. Bawiskar submitted the report to Vikas Rastogi, Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education Minister. According to sources, the Government was not happy with Dr Subhash Chaudhari for various reasons. In fact, Government had made a change in statute to empower it to remove Vice-Chancellors of the universities. The statute could not be used as it is not effective unless there is an amendment in the University Act. Governor had called Dr Chaudhari to Mumbai and asked him to put his papers but he did not, reliable sources disclosed.