Hello,
JNU’s Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has been at the centre of a storm for the past few weeks. She has faced student protests, allegations of casteist remarks, and even demands for her removal, including a student union-led campus referendum. But before any of this, there was Pune.
In 2009, a disciplinary inquiry found her guilty of moral turpitude. She had admitted – some say around 1,800 – ineligible students to seats reserved for another category, with allegations of financial misappropriation thrown in for good measure. The punishment came in 2011. Seven salary increments were permanently withheld.
A decade later, when she applied to lead another central university, the North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, that record surfaced. This potentially cost her the job. A year later, JNU handed her its top job anyway.
Our reporter Alok Rajput, himself a former JNU student, obtained the documents from her disciplinary case, NEHU’s vigilance check, and the minutes of the JNU Executive Council meeting where three elected faculty members formally dissented against the selection process and were quietly overruled.
The best bit? One member of the VC selection committee that picked her told The Reporters’ Collective he had never seen her vigilance report. Had he, he said, he would have considered it.
Read the full investigation here: How JNU Appointed A Vice Chancellor Found Guilty Of 'Moral Turpitude'
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Warm regards,
Furquan Ameen
Editor
The Reporters' Collective