Even though five years have elapsed since University Grants Commission had directed all the universities to implement UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations of 2012, two of the premier universities in Capital — Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which have applied for the tag of “Institute of Eminence” from Ministry Human Resources & Development (MHRD) - have not been able comply with the regulation. The universities have not appointed the mandatory “Ombudsman” as a last resort for the redressal of grievances of students within the university system as per the regulation despite Delhi High Court directives in the case.
As per the UGC regulations issued in December 2012, each university shall appoint an Ombudsman for redressal of grievances of students. The Ombudsman shall exercise his powers to hear any grievance of any student against the university or institution affiliated to it after the student has availed of remedies available for redressal of grievances. Further, the Ombudsman shall be a part-time officer appointed for a period of three years or until he attains the age of 70 years whichever is earlier.
The Ombudsman shall be a person who has been a judge not below the rank of a district judge or a retired professor having at least 10 years of experience as professor. He has to be appointed in a central university from a panel of three names recommended by search committee headed by Chairman UGC.
Acting on the Public Interest litigation (PIl) filed by a former student of law in DU, the Delhi High Court in February 2017 directed DU to take necessary steps and appoint the “Ombudsman” in terms of the provisions of the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations 2012 as ‘expeditiously’ as possible within a period of four months. It also directed the UGC to ensure appointment in all the Central/State Universities following due process of law within four months.
The Delhi High Court had even observed that the “failure of the universities to appoint Ombudsman or to constitute Grievance Redressal Committees for the colleges would defeat the very object of the grievance redressal mechanism provided by UGC”.
However, it was only after a gap of nine months that UGC communicated to the DU asking it to take appropriate action and asking for the compliance report without any further delay.
A DU official said that Dean Students ‘Welfare (DSW) acts as the nodal office in dealing with students’ grievance and forwards it to the concerned department or colleges for redressal. He also told that the present system is working efficiently and redressal of grievances is fast on priority basis. Another official said that the process of appointment of Ombudsman is indeed
very ‘complex’ and university has to put the matter before Executive Council (EC) for discussion.
While JNU has Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), which replaced its age-old Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), is mainly to deal with the cases of sexual harassment and gender sensitisation. JNU also has no Ombudsman to deal to address students’ grievances.
A JNU official said, “In JNU at the time of student’s union elections, grievance committees are formed but are temporary in nature and are eventually disbanded after the elections.”