Mumbai univ VC gets a breather

University of Mumbai vice-chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar on Wednesday got a breather from the Bombay High Court, which has directed the varsity’s search committee to verify and reply as to which research papers submitted by him were considered while deciding on his eligibility for the post.

Single-judge SJ Vazifdar was the third judge to whom the matter was assigned after a division bench gave a split verdict last year. The main contention before justice Vazifdar was if the decision of the search committee to include the name of Welukar in the list of eligible candidates for the office of the vice-chancellor of the university suffered from any non-application of mind.

The court in its Wednesday’s order stated that: “It would be appropriate only to ascertain if the search committee and/or the chancellor considered Welukar’s to be eligible on the basis of the said five relevant publications.

 The nature of the final order can be determined only if the answer to this query is in the negative to wit, if the Chancellor and the search committee state that they considered Welukar eligible for consideration on the basis of even one of seven irrelevant publications.”

The search committee will now reply to the division bench on the point raised by the single judge and after that the division bench will pass a final order on the plea challenging Welukar’s appointment.