Karnatak University vice-chancellor H B Walikar on Monday relived registrar evaluation J S Bhat from his responsibilities and appointed Professor Ninnekar of PG department of Biotechnology as the in-charge registrar (Evaluation). The surprising aspect was that the vice chancellor’s announcement regarding his decision to remove J S Bhat came during the media briefing soon after the academic council meeting held at the university. Registrar (Evaluation) J S Bhat and registrar (administration) S B Hinchigeri who had attended the academic council meeting were sitting by the side of the vice-chancellor during the media briefing and were stunned when the VC made the announcement.
Walikar said his decision to relieve J S Bhat and appoint Prof. Ninnekar was in accordance with the order issued by the Karnataka High Court Circuit Bench (Dharwad) on Monday morning. He said he had just, received the copy of the court order and was following the court’s direction.
It may be recalled that J S Bhat, Professor in the department of Physics in Karnataka University was appointed as the registrar (evaluation) two years ago during the regime of S K Saidapur as vice-chancellor. After Saidapur’e term ended, the university had filed a petition in the HC challenging the appointment of Bhat as registrar (evaluation) claiming that he had been appointed overlooking the seniority of others.
Meanwhile Bhat had also approached the court and had managed to get a stay order from the court which had barred the varsity from relieving him till May 30, 2012. In the meantime, the department of higher education had also sent a letter to the University to continue Bhat as registrar (Evaluation) till further orders.
On Monday the high court circuit bench took up the case and decreed that Bhat’s appointment was against the norms and asked the vice-chancellor to relieve Bhat from the post and appoint the senior professor as registrar (evaluation).
The court has also directed the state government to appoint a suitable person as regular registrar (evaluation) for a period of two years before July 15. Vice Chancellor H B Walikar who chaired the meeting justified the hike saying that the other Universities in the region had hiked the affiliation fees for under graduate courses by 72 per cent and for PG courses by 330 per cent.
Now the colleges intending to start commerce course at UG level will have to pay Rs 45000 instead of Rs 30000. For arts and science courses the hike is from Rs 30000 to 33000. For PG courses to start M Com the fees has been hiked from Rs 48000 to Rs 1 lakh, for MA from Rs 48000 to Rs 80000 and for MSc fromRs 48000 to Rs 60000.
Walikar said there has been good demand for commerce courses at both UG and PG level and inflow of students was also high. As such the colleges can accumulate the necessary funds for payment of affiliation fees, he said.
The academic council also gave its in-principle consent to allow the lecturers having PhD and working in private aided/unaided first grade colleges to work as guides for Ph D students.
A committee would be constituted to study the merits and demerits of allowing lecturers to be guides and the recommendations of the committee would be incorporated in the rules.
The University also came out with the time table for admission process to various PG courses. Since the results of all under graduate courses have been announced the varsity will start distribution of application forms for PG courses from June 30. The respective departments will conduct entrance test on July 18 and the admission process will be completed by July 30. There will be no centralized entrance test, the V-C clarified and said the concerned departments will conduct the tests.
