Image Source: TRIBUNE

After a seven-month-long administrative inertia to look into the difficulties being faced by the universities in Jammu and Kashmir post the implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act-2019, the UT administration has “amended” the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act, 1969, to enable the universities to carry out their functioning normally.

Under the new amendment, the order for which was issued on March 2 by the General Administration Department (GAD), the Lieutenant-Governor will now be the Chancellor of the University of Kashmir (KU) and the University of Jammu (JU). Earlier, the Governor in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was the Chancellor of the JU and the KU. He had the mandate to take and approve all major policy decisions of the universities. The Governor had the mandate to approve the selections of professors, associate professors and assistant professors on the recommendations of the selection panels.

After the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act, 1969, was to be amended with the appointment of the Lieutenant-Governor. What is perplexing is that the “amendment” carried out by the UT administration is silent on the functioning of seven other universities, including the Cluster University of Jammu, Cluster University of Srinagar, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Kashmir and Jammu, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Baba Gulam Shah Badshah University and the Islamic University of Science and Technology.