Chandigarh, January 3
The UT administration has reinstated the art college lecturer chargesheeted two years ago for “indecent” behaviour with a girl student. Kumar, who joined Government College of Art in December 2003, was chargesheeted for the first time in August 2005 after a third year student alleged that he used “indecent and objectionable language” when she went to discuss a certain matter with him. The college sexual harassment committee had found Kumar guilty of “indecent behaviour”.

A year later in February 2006, the UT administration suspended Kumar on grounds that he had made a false declaration in a certain job application. “He stated that he was not facing any disciplinary action, which was not true,” said college sources, while Kumar maintained he had stated so on the basis of a "good character certificate" issued to him by college principal. Kumar’s suspension has now been revoked following orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal on the petitions filed by him.

Earlier, after his suspension, the lecturer had faced another charge sheet on three counts, including false declaration, threatening a college colleague and allowing some final year students to go for an educational tour that was meant for third year students. Kumar was the tour in charge. It is significant to note that after being suspended in 2006, Kumar was even transferred to ITI, Sector 28. Taking up his petitions in which he challenged the charge sheets and suspension, CAT observed that grounds for Kumar’s suspension were no longer made out.

College authorities had stated before CAT that they had suspended Kumar in the anticipation of departmental proceedings (charge sheet) against him. The tribunal, however, took the view that since transfer orders of Kumar still stood, he could not tamper with evidence in the enquiries pending against him. Hence there was no ground for his suspension. Moreover, enquiries in both the cases marked against Kumar are complete and their reports submitted.

Highly placed UT officials today confirmed Kumar’s reinstatement, adding they could not have gone on paying the lecturer for doing nothing. During a year of suspension, Kumar was drawing subsistence allowance.

Chandigarh, January 3
Taking a serious note of the prevailing irregularities, the administration today cracked the whip on a Sector 35 school.

The Education Department dissolved the management of government-aided Sri Guru Gobind Singh School, Sector 35, today and appointed Harbir Singh Anand, a commerce lecturer, as officiating principal-cum-manager-receiver of the school. This order has been implemented with immediate effect under Section 4 of Punjab-Aided School (Security of Service) Act, 1969.

Shocked by the decision of the Education Department, the chairman of the school managing committee, Joginder Singh Sawhney denied receiving any communication in this respect. “It is really a shocking news for me as we have always been abiding by the orders of the Education Department. I fail to understand why the department has taken such a harsh decision, which is really disturbing”.

“Moreover, it is the prerogative of the managing committee to make appointment, of course, with the consent of the department, but it is not proper to dissolve the committee and appoint somebody as head of the institution, without taking us into confidence”, rued Joginder Singh.

Interestingly, Anup Singh, the present officiating principal of the school, too did not know about this development and was also shocked to know about it.

The school was issued a 15-day show-cause notice in November last to defend their position against the objections raised by the department but the school, reportedly, could not respond satisfactory.

Complying with the high court orders dated September 7, 2007, the department had instructed the school managing committee, not to retain Jaswant Singh, who already was retired, as the principal of the school in any capacity after September 31, 2007.

The department had also asked the management to depute the next senior most teacher to officiate as principal till further orders of high court.

Jaswant Singh was facing serious sexual harassment charges, the decision of which is still pending with the high court. Ironically, the next two seniormost teachers Inderjeet Kaur and Tarsem Kaur, reportedly, had levelled the allegations against ex-principal Jaswant Singh.

“The matter was still pending in the court, so leaving nothing to chance, we had appointed the third seniormost science lecturer Anup Singh, as officiating principal of the school. Now, what objection does the department has, is beyond my understanding”, said Joginder Singh.

Ironically, the school management, instead of relieving Jaswant Singh, had, reportedly, proposed to the department to retain him on the same post on contract basis.

The DPI (S) S.K. Setia said, “The management was given enough time to explain their cause, which they could not. The person they had appointed was at the third place and the seniormost teachers, too, were facing inquiries against them. How can we allow them to handover the institution to a person without letting us know?”

The department maintained that this decision has been taken after the department had found serious mismanagement and clear cut disobedience and violation of official orders.