Coimbatore, Nov. 9 : It has been over 48 hours since S. Srilakshmi Prabha filed a complaint against Dr. A. Ganapathy, Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiar University, here. The Vadavalli police late on Monday registered a case under three provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 based on the complaint. But the VC is yet to receive a copy of the FIR as he is said to be in Chennai for a meeting.
“Only when he receives the FIR copy can any action be initiated against him. But he has not returned from Chennai. Only the Syndicate members are sending responses and meeting the press. The Registrar has also issued statements. But there is no response yet from the VC. He has not issued any statement. I guess he will apply for anticipatory bail,” said Dr. Prabha who completed Ph.D. from the university in 2011.
Dr. Prabha had applied for the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology in
2016. She alleged that the university did not follow the reservation norms and denied her a job. It was given to the brother of a university faculty. She moved the court challenging the appointment. The court asked her to change the prayer because “it was general in nature”. Subsequently she filed a writ petition with a modified prayer.
“This is yet to come up for hearing, and has not been dismissed as it is made out to be by the VC,” said Dr. Prabha.
About the allegation that her attempt to secure a Post-Doctoral Fellowship of the University Grants Commission (UGC) was scuttled, she said that the delay by the university in processing her verification was intentional as she had gone to Court about the earlier recruitment.
Dr. Prabha was granted the five-year PDF by the UGC starting 2017. The verification approval from the university Registrar had to be uploaded by the candidate by July 31, 2017, for confirmation of the PDF. According to Dr. Prabha she submitted the relevant papers on June 26 through her mentor.
“The university initially asked me to change the name of the institute, then the mentor. This took a lot of time. I approached the VC three times requesting him to hasten the verification of the documents so that I can upload them. He turned me away saying that the university will forward the papers to the UGC. But the university failed to do it. These details have to be sent by the candidate and not the university. Anyway, the delay meant that I was denied the opportunity to get the PDF. If this is not torture and oppression, then what is ?” she asked.
On Tuesday, the university sent a series of mails from the office of the PRO explaining the stance of the university. First was a letter stating that the VC was in Chennai attending a meeting of the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education and “not absconding” as was purported to be by a TV news channel. The second one was a letter signed by nine members of the Syndicate in support of the VC’s decision in not selecting Dr. Prabha for the post of Assistant Professor.
The third communication was an explanation as to why she was denied the appointment and also the alleged delay by the university with regard to the PDF.
“I belong to the SC community and it is not necessary that the VC insults or intimidates me through words to complain against him under the provisions of the SC/ST Act. The three sections have been sought because he has prevented me from practicing my profession and thereby I have been deprived of means of livelihood,” she added.