Gujarat HC orders Mahatma Gandhi-founded varsity to take ‘appropriate’ action against VC

The ruling came as a setback for Khimani who was appointed vice-chancellor in June 2021 by Ela Bhatt, following the recommendation of a search committee

The Gujarat High Court, on Wednesday, directed Gujarat Vidyapith—a deemed university founded by Mahatma Gandhi—to take “appropriate” action within eight weeks on University Grants Commission’s (UGC) decision asking to sack its current vice-chancellor on various grounds, including “financial irregularity”, “administrative lapses” in his appointment, as well as not having the required eligibility for the post.

After passing the order, the bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav, however, remarked that he had “serious doubts that Vidyapith would do anything”.

The court was ruling on a petition filed by the vice-chancellor under scrutiny, Rajendra Khimani, after the UGC declared him ineligible for the job. The Bench directed the university’s chancellor—90-year-old Ela Bhatt who is a Padma Bhushan recipient and founder of the well-known Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)—to remove him as the vice-chancellor.

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The ruling came as a setback for Khimani who was appointed vice-chancellor in June 2021 by Bhatt, following the recommendation of a search committee.

However, one of the members of the committee, Navin Sheth, had disapproved of Khimani’s candidature citing an ongoing vigilance inquiry against the latter. However, Sheth’s dissent note was ignored, and Khimani’s appointment went through.

Sheth, who was the vice-chancellor of Gujarat Technological University and represented UGC in the search committee, then wrote to the Union Ministry of Education in New Delhi, following which the UGC set up an inquiry committee.

In November 2021, the UGC passed an order based on the inquiry committee’s recommendation, directing the chancellor to sack Khimani immediately in view of several procedural lapses.

The UGC, in its minutes of the meeting uploaded on its website, had stated: “...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.”

From 2004 to 2019, Khimani had served as the registrar of the varsity. Following this order, Khimani moved the high court against the UGC order, contending that he was never communicated to him or the varsity.

“Reading of the affidavit of Gujarat Vidyapith indicates that they are ignorant of minutes of the meeting communicated on the website. That benefit I will not give to Vidyapith,” Justice Vaishnav noted in the order. He also said that “Vidyapith seems to have justified his appointment, but this court will not get into justification or merit.”

The judge said what should have been done was to follow the “due process as envisaged in the Regulation 10.12.2.E of the UGC (Institutions Deemed To Be Universities) Regulations, 2019.” This regulation deals with the removal of a vice-chancellor in case the person doesn’t have the required qualification.

“The stage is now set for Vidyapith to follow the due process and pass appropriate order as suggested by UGC (of removal),” Justice Vaishnav stated in the order dictated in the open court.

During the pendency of litigation, the UGC had filed an affidavit in the court alleging large-scale irregularities in maintaining finance and recruitment including the appointment of Khimani.

The central regulatory body for higher education said that its conclusion to sack Khimani was in the “larger interest” of Gujarat Vidyapith “to maintain ethics of Mahatma Gandhi”, who founded this university over 100 years ago during the freedom struggle.

In the affidavit, the commission also cited how the Ministry of Education forwarded it a letter from Sheth, who was the central government-nominated member in the search-cum-selection committee (SCSC). It said that the committee had scrutinised 19 applications and members agreed for two candidates for the recommended panel of candidates.

“Sheth forwarded a dissent note on the name of one candidate (Khimani) due to pending inquiry against him,” the affidavit stated. “Despite such dissent note, the Chancellor of the said university had taken the immediate decision and appointed such candidate as V-C on 29.06.2021,” the UGC said.

“However, the Chancellor had not recorded any reasons to appoint such dissented candidate as Vice Chancellor when the other two names proposed by SCSC committee were recommended by all three members. Thus, the said fact clearly suggests some irregularity in the procedure adopted for appointment of Vice Chancellor in Gujarat Vidyapith," the UGC said in the affidavit.

“It is important to note that university was given the status of deemed university (1963) with condition that Gujarat Vidyapith Trust (sponsoring body) is required to get separately registered a trust/society under respective acts for institution which is being declared as deemed university.” Not bifurcating, the UGC stated, amounted to “major breach of condition”.

The UGC also found lapses in managing finances including a difference of Rs 49.56 lakh between figures of expenditure incurred and the utilization certificates submitted against the grant received.