- (1.) AMITAVA Lala, J. The petitioner is an employee of the Allahabad Agricultural Institute Deemed University. From the Constitution of the said institute it appears that the same is a Christian University of Rural Life. According to the petitioner, the institute has been declared as Deemed University under the provisions of Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (hereinafter called as "act, 1956") vide notification dated 15th March, 2000. There is a Vice-Chancellor with full time salary to be appointed by the President from the panel of three names suggested by a search committee. The committee comprises nominee of the President of the institute, nominee of the State Government and nominee of Chairman of the University.
(2.) THE necessary bye-laws say that tenure of the Vice-Chancellor to hold the office is for a period of five years and he shall not be eligible for re-employment. However, the Vice-Chancellor can continue with the office not more than the period of six months beyond the stipulated period. From the other records we find that a Vice-Chancellor shall retire during the tenure of his office in the institution if he completes the age of 65 years. Further according to the petitioner, the present Vice-Chancellor is perpetuating his continuation in the post despite expiry of the tenure without any authority of law. Union of India is not constituting any search committee for appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor in arbitrary manner. Salary for the post of Vice-Chancellor is funded by the State Government illegally although the term has expired. From the Annexure-4 to the writ petition, being Article XIX of Memorandum of Association as submitted by the institute to the University Grants Commission (hereinafter in short called as "ugc"), it appears as follows : "ordinarily the Vice-Chancellor shall superannuate at the age prescribed for teaching staff from time to time, but the Board of Directors may extend his appointment for a maximum period of five more years or up to 65 years of age whichever is higher. "
(3.) IT also appears from Annexure-6 to the writ petition that a letter was written by the authority under the UGC to the Chancellor of the Institute/university that even though the University is minority institution, such status does not give it right to surpass the authority of the statutory bodies including that of UGC. The University is still not a registered society as is the primary requirement as per the guidelines. The memorandum of association and rules are also not in conformity with the model prescribed by the UGC. The UGC has already pointed out these discrepancies to the Institute with a request to set them right. But no compliance has been reported so far. On 27th September, 2005 a letter was written by an authority of the UGC to the Vice-Chancellor on a clarification sought by a Member of Parliament and to request him to inform UGC regarding constitution of such committee for selection of next Vice-Chancellor of the said university. However, from the record it appears that on 07th October, 2005 clarification has been made by the Registrar of the University to the Secretary, UGC making detailed discussion about the state of affairs, from which various important informations came out. It appears that the memorandum and articles of association of the Board of Directors of the Allahabad Agricultural Institute and Constitution of the University were accepted by the UGC/ministry of Human Resources Development prior to declaring the Institute as Deemed University. It was specifically stated in the Constitution that the post of Director/principal shall be upgraded as Vice-Chancellor till his superannuation. Secondly, appointment of the Vice-Chancellor was previously challenged in a writ petition, being Writ Petition No. 44533 of 2002, Ram Narain Pande v. Rajendra B. Lal & Ors. , before this High Court, which was dismissed by a Division Bench on 21st October, 2002. The order was challenged before the Supreme Court when the writ petition was dismissed by saying that the same is entirely misconceived. It was stated therein that issuance of writ of quo warranto being proceedings in rem, the matter with regard to appointment of Vice-Chancellor has attained finality. It was said that the tenure of the present Vice-Chancellor is alleged to have expired on 15th March, 2005. The guidelines have been framed in the year 2002 much after the Allahabad Agricultural Institute was declared as Deemed University. The guidelines are wholly non- statutory in character and do not bear any statutory insignia. Further these guidelines have retrospective effect and are, accordingly, not applicable to Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University.;