Chhattisgarh HC quashes five-year extension given to law varsity V-C

Samal had moved HC in appeal after his writ petition was dismissed by a single-judge bench of the High Court in April 2016 based on the grounds that he had no “locus standi” to challenge the extension.

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Maintaining that the recommendation for extension was granted based on a statute that had not come into effect, a two-member bench of Chhattisgarh High Court on Monday quashed the extension of vice-chancellor of Hidayatullah National University of Law (HNLU), Dr Sukh Pal Singh, who is serving the five-year extension that began in March 2016.

The verdict from the bench of Justices Goutam Bhaduri and Sanjay Agrawal came on a writ appeal filed by Dr Avinash Samal, an assistant professor at HNLU and member of the varsity’s executive council.

Samal had moved HC in appeal after his writ petition was dismissed by a single-judge bench of the High Court in April 2016 based on the grounds that he had no “locus standi” to challenge the extension.

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Setting aside that decision, the two-judge bench observed in its order that the extension granted to Sukh Pal Singh was based on a recommendation that could not be upheld as the statute under which it was maintained had not come into effect.

Justice Agarwal wrote in the judgment, “…the alleged recommendation was made by the Executive Council to the Chancellor of the Law University on 06.09.2014 for extension of existing tenure of respondent No.5 as Vice-Chancellor for a period of next 5 years, much prior to the incorporation of the said amendment to the Statute. Therefore, such recommendation of the Executive Council issued on the basis of its meeting held on 06.09.2014 much prior to the incorporation of the alleged amendment to the Statute cannot be taken into consideration as a valid recommendation for extension.”

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