After the suspension of four faculty members from the South Asian University (SAU) grabbed headlines, the university told EdexLive that the senior faculty members were suspended due to "allegations of misconduct".
Professors Snehashish Bhattacharya, Srinivas Burra, Irfanullah Farooqi and Ravi Kumar were suspended on Friday, June 16. Following this, many students and teachers' associations condemned the suspensions, calling it an 'anti-democratic attack' and demanding that the university revoke the suspensions.
A few students also alleged that the professors were asked to fill a question booklet with over 200 questions in pen and paper mode within one day as part of an exercise by the fact-finding committee. They claimed that the professors refused to fill the booklet hence, were served suspension.
However, the university has denied these allegations.
"No 'professors' were asked to 'fill a booklet with over 200 questions'. The Fact Finding Committee was constituted as per the Inter-governmental Rules, Regulations and Bye-laws of the university. The committee proceeded as per the terms of reference. Its findings include allegations of misconduct and non-cooperation with the committee," the university said in response to EdexLive.
What happened earlier?
Last year in October 2022, the students of SAU initiated a month-long protest demanding an increase in masters' and PhD scholarships. The agitations included sit-in protests on campus and an indefinite hunger strike.
As per the reports, on October 13, the university administration called the Delhi Police to the campus to disperse the students who had gathered at the acting president’s office. This led to rage among the protesting students who said that police intimidation was being used against them.
Following this incident, a group of 13 faculty members allegedly wrote to the university administration raising concern about police force being used on campus, one of the suspended faculty members told Edex Live on request of anonymity.
"We suggested to the administration that if there are issues, they should be resolved internally. We were not challenging them, we only said that you need to withdraw these actions as they do not follow the rules and regulations of the university. The emails were suggestive and constructive in nature," the faculty member explained.
The faculty member also claimed that on December 30, the university sent a letter to five faculty members citing the emails, saying that by writing the emails they have 'instigated' the students and called it 'misconduct'.
In one of the emails, 15 members of the faculty also alleged that arbitrary actions of the administration have sharply worsened the situation at the university.
As per the reports, the university had also expelled a number of students and non-teaching staff prompting a hunger strike on the campus.
"In February two more students were rusticated and two were suspended. They are suspending students and faculty members in the name of 'maintaining discipline'. They are using emergency powers saying this is an emergency situation," alleged Keshav Sawarn, a student of MA Sociology at SAU.
