Petition Challenging Appointment Of AMU VC Prof Naima Khatoon Dismissed by Allahabad High Court
BY Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court on Saturday dismissed a writ petition challenging the appointment of Prof Naima Khatoon as vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
In his petition, the petitioner, Prof Mujahid Beg, had alleged that there were irregularities in the appointment process to favour a particular candidate.
The petitioners had challenged the selection and appointment of Prof Khatoon primarily on the ground that her husband, Prof Mohammed Gulrez, was acting as vice-chancellor and had presided over the crucial meetings of the executive council and the court, wherein his wife was recommended for appointment to the post.
They had asserted that this was not just a case of likelihood of bias on the part of Gulrez, but the proceedings had been manipulated to secure the selection and appointment of Khatoon.
Earlier on April 9, a bench of justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Donadi Ramesh had reserved its judgement after hearing counsels for the petitioner as well as of the university and the central government.
The court has also consolidated two additional petitions filed on the same issue, and all were decided by the present judgment.
Dismissing the writ petition filed by Prof Mujahid Beg, a division bench comprising Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justices Donadi Ramesh observed, “ We have already noticed that the qualification of Professor Naima Khatoon to be appointed as the Vice-Chancellor is not in issue.
Her ultimate selection is by the Visitor against whom no allegation of bias is made. She was the erstwhile Principal of Women’s College of the University.”
“Merely because her husband was acting as vice chancellor and had presided and participated in the meetings of executive council and University Court, which also recommended her name, in addition to others, for appointment as Vice-Chancellor cannot be a ground to interfere with her appointment as the first woman vice-chancellor of the University,” it added.
The court further stated that, “For the reasons and deliberations held above, we hold that discretion exercised by the Visitor in appointing Professor Naima Khatoon as the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from a panel of three names recommended by the University Court merits no interference. Writ petitions are, accordingly, dismissed.”
Naima Khatoon, who completed her PhD in psychology from AMU, was appointed as a lecturer in the same department in 1988 before being elevated to professor in 2006. She continued there before being appointed the principal of the Women’s College in 2014.
