On Thursday, October 19, Delhi University's (DU) Motilal Nehru College teachers protested on the campus as no relaxation was given to ad-hoc teachers in the ongoing permanent faculty recruitment. No immediate reaction was available from the college principal or the DU administration over the issue, according to a report by PTI.

What led to the protest?
Interviews for permanent positions in the college's Hindi department are scheduled to be held from October 21 to 26 in DU's North Campus. Five ad-hoc teachers are already teaching in the Hindi department of the college with over nine years of experience. However, the move of the college administration to recruit permanent faculty for seven posts in the Hindi department has led to fears among ad-hoc teachers that they will be removed.

Recently, the Staff Association of Motilal Nehru College staged a dharna against the displacement of ad-hoc teachers in the Computer Science and Environmental Science departments as the college announced a fresh round of recruitment. “We fear that the same thing may happen with ad-hoc teachers in the Hindi department," said Professor Prof Maya John, a member of the academic council and Democratic United Teachers Alliance.

"Our demand is that the administration should retain long-serving ad-hocs as permanent faculty," Prof John added. Another academic council member, Mithuraaj Dhusiya, alleged that the university's recent notification barring ad-hoc appointments citing UGC regulations is "misleading", as per PTI.

On October 17, the varsity issued a notification expressing grave concern over the recruitment of teaching staff on an ad-hoc basis by some colleges and institutes. The notification directed colleges not to advertise for ad-hoc vacancies and said that such recruitments disregard the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, 2018.