2 PU senators for appeal against HC decision on ex-governing body member

Two senators and syndicate members of Panjab University (PU) have written to chancellor and Vice President
M Venkaiah Naidu, asking for an appeal against the Punjab and Haryana high court decision in the case of an ex-senator’s registration as a graduate constituency member being cancelled by PU.

The court quashed PU’s 2019 decision to revoke the registration of former senator Munish Verma as a graduate constituency member, which allows ex-students to elect and contest polls for the university’s apex governing body.

PU senators Rabindra Nath Sharma and Jarnail Singh, who are also the members of the syndicate, have urged Naidu to file the appeal in view of the allegations made against Verma.

“This is a matter of dignity for the PU senate and chancellor of the university. There was no dissent in the syndicate and senate over the decision taken against the former senator,” Sharma said.

The court had questioned the quorum of the meeting in which the decision was taken, adding that according to the PU Act, a person’s name could be struck off the register of the registered graduates with the concurrence of not less than two third members of the senate. Out of 91 members only 38 members were present when the decision was taken.

In a letter to Verma last year, PU had written that his registration for the graduate constituency had been revoked thus barring him from contesting the senate polls.

Verma’s registration was cancelled after he was indicted in a case of wrongful hiring of three persons as centre and assistant superintendents in the 2014 annual examination to MR Government College Fazilka, Punjab.

PU’s registrar Karamjeet Singh was not available for comments.