HC stays JNU circular making mandatory for faculty to mark attendance

New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Monday put an interim stay on a Jawaharlal Nehru University administration's decision making it mandatory for the faculty to mark their attendance every day.

Justice Suresh Kait stayed the JNU circular of November 13, 2018.

The court was hearing a plea filed by professor Archana Prasad from the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies who has sought quashing of the circular.

Prasad's leaves applications for a legitimate academic purpose were blindly rejected by JNU for non-compliance with the faculty attendance rule.

She told the court that she has sent a leave application for attending a conference in South Africa between December 6 and 16, 2018. The leave application was declined by the university administration relying on the November 13 circular.

Her other application was rejected by the university administration in January.

The November 13's circular read: "All proposals/requests of faculty members, including leave requests, should be forwarded by the Deans and Chairpersons of the School/Centre/Special Centre concerned for consideration of competent authority, only after confirming that the faculty member concerned has adhered to the attendance rules of the university and has been marking his/her attendance.

"While forwarding request/ paper/ proposal of faculties, it has to be ensured by the Deans of Schools/ Chairperson of Centres/ Special Centres that the faculty concerned has been taking attendance of students as well. As desired by the competent authority, no request/paper/proposal of faculty will be entertained/ considered if he/ she has not adhered to the above decisions of statutory bodies."