Srinagar: A senior professor at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) in Rajouri who was suspended for “gross misconduct” is among the candidates chosen for the post of the varsity’s Vice Chancellor, raising questions over the selection process.
Three months ago, the varsity’s administration suspended Principal-cum-Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology (SOET), Prof M Asger, for “gross professional misconduct, dereliction of duties and flagrant violation of code of conduct” after consistently failing to hand over the financial charge to the new incumbent.
The new incumbent, Prof Asif Hussain, assumed charge as Dean SOET on February 17, but two days later on February 19, Prof Hussain intimated the BGSBU administration that Prof Asgar had not handed over any financial charges to him, “causing him a lot of inconvenience”, a memo issued by Registrar BGSBU in July and accessed by Kashmir Reader reads.
The varsity administration wrote to Prof Asger asking him to furnish financial documents including all the bank accounts held by him singly or jointly in his name or as capacity of Dean/Principal SOET, bank accounts held by him with any other head of the department of SOET, the income and expenditure details of each account, along with details of transaction and annual audit reports of the bank accounts.
But the outgoing Dean did not comply, prompting the BGSBU administration to issue two show cause notices to him over his “gross misconduct’’ that “makes him liable to disciplinary action”.
While the reply to the first show cause notice by Prof Asger on June 4 was “evasive, absolutely unsatisfactory and devoid of any tangible explanation to all the acts of misdemeanor indulged in by him” the reply to the second one was “again off the track trying to dodge all the queries,” the memo by Registrar BGSBU said.
The outgoing Dean SOET was finally suspended by the Vice Chancellor BGSBU on July 18 while an enquiry was also ordered into his conduct.
Before he was suspended, the varsity’s Dean of Management Studies, who was asked by the administration to examine the matter based on documentary evidences on record, concluded that “prima facie, it is indeed a case of gross misconduct on the part of Prof Asger, who, apart from other instances of impropriety, has also failed to hand over the financial charge of SOET to the new incumbent despite repeated communications from the university in this regard. Hence a disciplinary action as per rules is called for.”
Now, more than three months into his suspension, the former Dean SOET has managed to apply for the post of Vice Chancellor BGSBU and is currently in fray for the top post, recruitment for which is currently underway, reliable sources told Kashmir Reader.
The development has raised questions over the entire recruitment process with stakeholders questioning how a tainted professor could run for the post when the administration had ordered an enquiry against him.
Sources said that the suspended professor was among eighteen candidates who recently appeared for interaction with the selection committee set up for the selection of a new VC and which is headed by VC Kashmir University, Prof Talat Ahmad.
“Inviting a person with such a tainted record for which he has been suspended raises many questions on the integrity and validity of the entire selection process,” an official at BGSBU remarked.
The official said that calling the tainted professor for interaction by the selection committee was all the more suspicious as the Chairman of the selection committee was coincidentally also the member of the Executive Council at BGSBU which had “unanimously endorsed the professor’s suspension”.
“Against this entire backdrop, some sort of setting and foul play is suspected in the selection process of the VC post,” a BGSBU insider said.
He further alleged that “many highly qualified applicants with impeccable academic and administrative experience have been ignored and not invited for interaction with the committee”.
An official at BGSBU demanded an enquiry at the highest level into the matter.
Another official called the development “alarming” and said it needed a “thorough probe”.
Registrar BGSBU Prof M Ishaq when asked for his comments on the matter feigned ignorance. “The selection committee must know about it,” he said.
Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Department, Talat Parvez Rohella said that the candidate’s credentials will be checked before final selection for the post.
Pertinently, the suspended professor had absented himself in the online meetings of the Deans of Schools over timely implementation of the academic calendar during the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, “without assigning any reason or obtaining prior permission of the competent authority”.
“This adversely impacted the academic monitoring of schools of studies of which Prof M Asger was the Dean,” Registrar BGSBU has written in the professor’s suspension order.
It has also been learnt that the said professor has been a “habitual offender” and has been issued frequent show cause notices, Note of ‘Displeasure’, and warnings by successive vice chancellors.
“It is also on record that he has tendered apologies and given assurances not to repeat acts of misdemeanor, but as evident from the recent, such instances of impropriety and impertinences have continued with alarming regularity,” reads the official memo.
It said that there had been “scores of complaints from several quarters” against the suspended professor “for his indiscretion and unprofessional conduct, which severely hampered the functioning of the various offices”.

Irshad Khan