AMU debars 7 Phd aspirants from admission for 3 academic sessions

AGRA

: In a bid to crack the whip on an ongoing protest by a group of Phd aspirants against the alleged irregularities in the admission process to doctorate courses, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Thursday debarred seven of the protestors from taking admission in any course for three academic sessions, including 2018-19.


The university’s decision led to further protest with students from university, including its union’s president and secretary extending support to the protestors and dubbing the vice-chancellor (VC), Tariq Mansoor, as “sanghi” and “anti-students”. Agitated by the bar imposed on the seven PhD aspirants, university students took out a protest march on Thursday evening and raised slogans of “inqulab murdabad”.

One of the debarred aspirants, Aquib Khurshid, said that the VC was acting as a “sanghi” as he was favouring a few students under the pressure of local BJP leaders. Khurshid alleged that the VC had approved the admission of BJP MP Satish Gautam’s candidate in

Hindi

department without following due procedure.

Expressing similar views, an aggrieved woman Phd aspirant alleged that the administration had given admission to the candidates, who had not even filled the forms or appeared for an interview. She said that the admission process was flawed and should be made transparent and the administration must disclose the procedure. “If they have nothing to hide, they should be open about the process and not act like dictators,” she said.

According to a notice issued to seven Phd aspirants, Daud Baig, Mohd Faraz, Mohd Nazim, Mohd Abid Seikh, Adil Wali Farooqui, Aquib Khurshid and Asif Ali, they all have been debarred from taking further admission in any course of the university for 2018-19 and also for the next two academic sessions. “The university campus and its maintained institutions are also placed out of bounds for these seven Phd aspirants with immediate effect,” read a notice.

The notice, which was issued by the university proctor, Prof Mohd Mohsin Khan, stated that the university had earlier issued an advisory and notices to remove the illegal dharna staged by Phd aspirants at the main gate of administrative block. “Instead of removing the unlawful dharna, they were trying to pressurise the administration to give them admission without being selected for the same, which is a violation of the university’s admission rules,” read the notice.

It was also stated that their unlawful activity disturbed the peaceful atmosphere of the university.

Moreover on Friday morning, Mohd Asif, who sat on an indefinite

hunger strike

from May 1, was removed from the dharna site and admitted to AMU’s medical college.

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