Delhi High Court Seeks Centre's Reply on Plea Against Mazhar Asif as Jamia VC

The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Central government and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University to a plea challenging the appointment of Professor Mazhar Asif as Vice Chancellor of the University.

Justice Prateek Jalan issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Education, JMI University, Professor Mazhar Asif, President’s Secretariat, and the Search-cum-Selection Committee that was constituted for the appointment.

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The petition filed by Vishal Rai, who is a practicing lawyer, mentioned that the appointment of Prof Asif was made in a colorable exercise of power which contrives the JMI Act and the University Grants Commission Regulations. He stated that the names suggested by the Search-cum-Selection Committee were in violation of the constitution and based on arbitrary recommendation.

While the Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma appearing for the University, raised questions about the maintainability of the petition and doubted the authenticity of the documents annexed to the petition by the Vishal Rai.

Advocate Amit George, appearing for Rai, said that since JMI University is under the Central government, a petition challenging the appointment can be filed by any citizen without setting out the locus in filing the petition. He also submitted that the documents in the petition were obtained via publicly available sources.

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The Court issued a notice on the petition subject to the objection on the point of maintainability. The matter will be heard next on July 16.

Notably, Mazhar Asif was a professor at the School of Languages, JNU, New Delhi, before being appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia. Prof Asif, a JNU professor, has been part of the committee that drafted the National Education Policy 2020, the national monitoring committee for education, and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) peer team. He also served as the chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling, regional centre, Guwahati.