JNUTA dharna against mandatory attendance illegal : JNU administration

NEW DELHI (INDIA), November 26 (ANI): After Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) went on hunger strike against the JNU administration at the administrative block of the varsity on Monday, the administration has termed their dharna "illegal" and "violations" of the High Court directions.
JNUTA hunger strike and protest is in the wake of recent circular regarding the compliance of faculty attendance as the teacher body demands that it must be immediately withdrawn. JNU in its 275th Executive Council meeting passed the resolution that prescribed mandatory marking of attendance by all the teachers of the university.
"The installation of biometric machines in the University be immediately stopped. Threatening teachers for biometric attendance is a violation, in letter and spirit, of the Right to Privacy provided by the judgments of the Supreme Court," said JNUTA in its press release.
"These diktats seek to burden teaching-learning in JNU with bureaucratic rules, and make it undignified and disrespectful to the teachers," it stated.
While the JNU administration asserted that despite several requests made by it to JNUTA office bearers to maintain peace in the campus and not to hold their dharna near Administration building JNUTA office bearers are still holdin dharna.
JNU administration said that it prohibited the area for such activities not only by JNU rules and regulations but also by the direction of the High Court.
"It is evident that JNUTA office bearers are determined to vitiate the academic environment in JNU. Their unlawful activities are causing disruption in the functioning of JNU administration. Their latest call for a hunger strike in front of the JNU Administrative Block is in complete defiance of the Academic Rules and Regulations which is applicable to all the components of the University," read press release from JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar.
"This attitude of JNUTA office bearers is totally uncalled for and will result in an undesirable disturbance in the academic environment of the university. This hunger strike has been called at the time when the current academic semester is moving towards its completion and the final examinations and paper presentations by students are going on in all the Centres and the Schools," the press release added.
While saying that the JNU administration has always responded to the concerns of JNUTA, the varsity appealed to them to discuss the issues through the JNUTA representatives office bearers within the purview of the relevant resolutions of the statutory bodies.(ANI)