Srinagar: The Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir (CUK) Saturday demitted his office on attaining the age of 70 years.
The outgoing VC of CUK, Prof Mehrajuddin Mir was appointed VC of the university in September 2015 by the President of India for a period of five years.
The five year tenure of Prof Mir was completed in September 2020.
However, he was granted extension till the appointment of the new VC for the university. As per the order, the VC was supposed to demit office after completing one year or after attaining the age of 70 years, whichever was earlier.
“It was my last day at the university and the upper age limit for VC is 70 years so therefore by virtue of University Act I have to demit office today on Saturday,” the outgoing Vice Chancellor told Greater Kashmir.
He said there was no communication from the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) but he demitted the office of the Vice Chancellor as per the provisions of the act.
After demitting the office, the outgoing VC would choose a senior most professor of the university to look after the affairs till the appointment of a permanent VC.
“I will have to find a senior-most professor within the university who will be appointed as the VC to look after the affairs of the varsity,” he said.
However, the university was indecisive in choosing a senior most professor in who would be given the charges of the VC.
“No decision was taken till late evening about who will be given the charge. The reason behind this is the internal rift between the university professors about their seniority,” a university official said.
Meanwhile, the outgoing VC of the university said that the senior-most faculty member would be given the charges of VC on Monday.
A university insider said that among others, Prof Abdul Gani of the Department of Management was one of the senior-most professors in the university.
“But the university administration has not finalised who will be the caretaker VC of the university,” he said.
Notably, in absence of the VC, the university is run by the pro-chancellor and in absence of the pro-chancellor, a senior most professor is given the charges of the VC.
“The CUK doesn’t have any pro chancellor. So the post will be manned by a senior-most professor of the university,” the official said.
A search committee constituted some months ago to draw a panel of candidates for the post of permanent VC of the university shortlisted 14 candidates including three professors from Kashmir for their interaction with the search committee.
“The interaction of the shortlisted candidates is scheduled on November 1 after which a panel will be submitted to the Government of India for the appointment of the VC for the university,” an official said.
Three professors from Kashmir shortlisted for their interaction with the search committee include Prof Shakeel Ahmd Romshoo, the VC Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST); Prof Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi of Biotechnology Department of KU and Prof Muhammad Afzal Zargar, who is currently Dean Life Science CUK.
Among other candidates shortlisted for the post include Prof Javed Musarrat, former VC Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University.
Also, professors from Pune University, Allahabad University, University of Mumbai, Aligarh Muslim University and Osmania University Hyderabad have been also shortlisted for the post.
The members of the search committee constituted by the Government of India to draw panel of names include a renowned academician and former VC Jalees Ahmed Khan Tareen, Prof Jawahar, Prof S K Singh, Prof S P Singh and a well-known educationist, Prof Ramabrahmam who is also the incumbent VC of the Central University of Odisha.