DNA: Mumbai: Saturday, February 07, 2015.
The Mumbai
university has spent over Rs12 lakh in cases challenging appointment of Rajan
Welukar as its vice chancellor, reply to an RTI query by activist Anil Galgali
has revealed.
As per the
details provided to Galgali, based on his application, some of the amount was
provided in January 2015 and some in 2013, with the total expenditure coming to
Rs12.11 lakh.
Ever since
Welukar was appointed in July 2010, his appointment was shrouded in
controversies. Various public interest litigations and writ petitions were
filed in both Bombay High Court and Supreme Court against his appointment.
The pleas
questioned whether he has the qualification to become a vice chancellor, that
his appointment was not as per the criteria set by the University Grants
Commission (UGC) and that the search committee set up to select him too was not
as per UGC recommendation.
The HC on
Thursday itself dismissed an application filed by Welukar seeking clarification
on the court's earlier order of November 11, 2014, in which it held that the
search committee had erred in shortlisting his name for the post.
As per the
reply to the RTI query, in 2013, the university spent nearly Rs4.1 lakh on fees
of three lawyers Rafique Dada, Naushad Engineer and Sagar Talekar. Rs8 lakh
were spent on having a counsel representing the case in Supreme Court Navin
Prakash.
The reply
added that Welukar himself cleared Prakash's name after being suggested by the
legal department and cleared by the pro-vice chancellor. Prakash sent two bills
of Rs2.5 lakh and Rs5.5 lakh.
"The
university is running because of students' fees. It should stick to its panel
of lawyers instead of hiring expensive services of others," said Galgali.
Despite
attempts, Welukar remained unavailable for comment.
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