PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH Minutes of meeting of the SENATE held on Saturday, 17 th December 2016 at 10.00 a.m. in the Senate Hall, Panjab University, Chandigarh. PRESENT: 1. Professor Arun Kumar Grover … (in the chair) 2. Shri Ashok Goyal 3. Ms. Anu Chatrath 4. Dr. Akhtar Mahmood 5. Dr. Ajay Ranga 6. Shri Amanpreet Singh 7. Dr. Amit Joshi 8. Dr. Ameer Sultana 9. Professor Anita Kaushal 10. Dr. Baljinder Singh 11. Dr. B.C. Josan 12. Professor B.S. Ghuman 13. Professor Chaman Lal 14. Dr. Dayal Partap Singh Randhawa 15. Dr. Dalip Kumar 16. Professor Dinesh K. Gupta 17. Dr. D.V.S. Jain 18. Dr. Emanual Nahar 19. Dr. Gurdip Kumar Sharma 20. Dr. Gurjot Singh Malhi 21. Dr. Gurmit Singh 22. Dr. Gurmeet Singh 23. Dr. Hardiljit Singh Gosal 24. Justice Harban Lal 25. Dr. Harjodh Singh 26. Dr. Harsh Batra 27. Shri H.S. Dua 28. Dr. I.S. Sandhu 29. Dr. Inderpal Singh Sidhu 30. Dr. Inderjit Kaur 31. Shri Jarnail Singh 32. Shri Jagdeep Kumar 33. Dr. Jagdish Chander 34. Dr. K.K. Sharma 35. Smt. Kirron Kher 36. Dr. Keshav Malhotra 37. Professor Manoj K. Sharma 38. Dr. Mukesh K. Arora 39. Dr. N.R. Sharma 40. Dr. Narinder Singh Sidhu 41. Dr. Nisha Bhargava 42. Dr. Neeru Malik 43. Professor Navdeep Goyal 44. Dr. Parveen Goyal 45. Shri Prabhjit Singh 46. Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal 47. Shri Parmod Kumar Senate Proceedings dated 17 th December 2016 2 48. Professor Promila Pathak 49. Professor Rajat Sandhir 50. Professor Pam Rajput 51. Dr. Raj Kumar Mahajan 52. Dr. Rabinder Nath Sharma 53. Dr. R.S. Jhanji 54. Shri Raghbir Dyal 55. Shri Rashpal Malhotra 56. Dr.(Mrs.) Rajesh Gill 57. Professor R.P. Bambha 58. Shri Ravinder Mohan Trikha 59. Dr. S. S. Sangha 60. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Arora 61. Dr. Sarabjit Kaur 62. Ms. Surinder Kaur 63. Professor Shelly Walia 64. Shri Sanjay Tandon 65. Shri Sandeep Singh 66. Shri Sandeep Kumar 67. Dr. S.K. Sharma 68. Dr. Shaminder Singh Sandhu 69. Dr. Satish Kumar Sharma 70. Shri Satya Pal Jain 71. Dr. Tarlochan Singh 72. Dr. Vipul Kumar Narang 73. Shri Varinder Singh 74. Shri G.S. Chadha … (Secretary) Registrar The following members could not attend the meeting: 1. Dr. Amod Gupta 2. Dr. Amar Singh 3. Ambassador I.S. Chadha 4. Professor Deepak Pental 5. Shri Jitender Yadav, D.H.E., U.T., Chandigarh 6. Shri Naresh Gaur 7. Shri Parimal Rai 8. Shri Punam Suri 9. S. Parkash Singh Badal 10. Professor Ronki Ram 11. Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar 12. Shri Sanjeev Kumar Bandlish 13. Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma 14. Dr. Subhash Sharma 15. Shri Surjit Singh Rakhra 16. Shri T.K. Goyal, Director, Higher Education, Punjab 17. Shri V.K. Sibal At the outset, the Vice Chancellor wishes good morning to all the members, including the new members of the Panjab University Senate. He stated that the destiny has given him a privilege to welcome the members of the second Senate, which has been constituted by the Chancellor on the basis of input from various sections of the society. He has this privilege which is rare as he looks at the history of this University. It is very Senate Proceedings dated 17 th December 2016 3 rare as the term of a Vice Chancellor is of 6 years. He is indeed happy to have this privilege to welcome the second new Senate. On the basis of experience of the first new Senate, which he presided over, let him just tell them as to how the proceedings of today’s meeting would go on. After having read the Vice Chancellor’s statement, they would spend a little bit time maybe up to a minute each, in introducing themselves and thereafter they would take up the agenda. He is conscious that many members wish to say so many things before they take up the agenda, which has been circulated to them in the background of several recent happenings concerning the University. He had taken an initiative of sending them several e-mails and also provided certain documents so that by the time they arrive here for the meeting, they had some background information with regard to the current difficult situation faced by the University for its sustenance. I. The Vice-Chancellor said, “With a deep sense of sorrow, I would like to inform the House about the sad demise of – (i) Col. Thakur Singh (Retd.), father of Smt. Kirron Kher, Member of Parliament from the city and Fellow, Panjab University, on November 8, 2016. (ii) Professor Daya Nand Garg, Department of Laws, on November 29, 2016. As a mark of respect to the departed souls, the Senate expressed its sorrow and grief over the passing away of Col. Thakur Singh (Retd.) and Professor Daya Nand Garg, and observed two minutes’ silence, all standing, prayed to the Almighty to give peace to the departed souls and give strength and courage to the members of the bereaved families to bear irreparable loss of their dear ones. RESOLVED: That a copy of the above Resolution be sent to the members of the bereaved families. II. The Vice-Chancellor said, – “1. I warmly welcome all the distinguished members to this first meeting of the present Senate. I am looking forward to guidance and support from all the hon'ble members of this august House for the sustenance and development of this prestigious University and to progress it towards becoming a global player. The Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource & Development during his recent visit to Mohali, had shared a new scheme of Government of India under which ten Universities in the State sector shall get provided special support to attempt to attain World Class stature. Let us hope that Panjab University shall get selected for such an assistance. 2. I had taken initiative to provide all of you an update on the financial difficulty currently being faced by the Panjab University by sharing an e-mail sent to the Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC). As per a directive of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD), convened a meeting on December 15, 2016, in which Chairman, UGC, and several senior officials of MHRD and Secretary, UGC, were present. Registrar, Finance & Development Officer and I participated in this meeting on behalf of Panjab University. The summary of this meeting is expected to be submitted by the Counsels of MHRD and UGC to the High Court on Monday, the 19 th December, 2016. The Government of India is attending to the concerns of our University and it is hoped that we shall overcome the difficulty currently being encountered. I have arranged to send you by e-mail the Senate Proceedings dated 17 th December 2016 4 collation of the minutes of all the meetings of Board of Finance, Syndicate and Senate pertaining to University’s finances, so that an appraisal can be made of the continuous efforts made by the Governing bodies of the University to attend to this matter. These minutes run into over 440 pages and it would take them a while before they could browse to them. They have sent them an e-mail and if the members desire, a printed copy of these minutes could also be sent to each one of them in due course of time.” The Vice Chancellor stated that this is what he had to convey to them as a part of the start of today’s meeting. RESOLVED: That – (1) the information contained in the Vice Chancellor’s statement at Sr. Nos. 1 and 2, be noted; and (2) the action taken report on the decisions of the Senate meeting dated 03.09.2016, as per Appendix-I, be noted. III. At this stage, the Vice Chancellor said that now they could start the task of having a brief introduction of each one of them to others. He request every member to spend up to a minute to say whatever he or she wishes to say about himself/herself. Hereinafter the members introduced themselves one by one. The Vice-Chancellor stated that let him respond by stating that he is really humbled by the background of each one of them. Had he not been appointed the Vice Chancellor of this University, probably he would have never made it to the Senate of this University. The Senate of this University, as they all know, is very-very unique. Long before the University had a Senate, the people of Punjab via Anjuman-e-Punjab had lobbied to have a College in Punjab. After a College in Punjab, the Calcutta University had conceded a Constituent College at Lahore as an Appendix to the Government College, Lahore, and for that they had put down certain conditions. The people of Punjab were supposed to contribute finances and other means so that the College could be sustained and as a gesture towards that, that College had a Senate. Long before the University had a Senate, the College had a Senate and that Senate had representation from the civil society, NGOs as well as former Maharajas and erstwhile Generals of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who contributed money to get the College going. Since the Senate had represented that character, when the University was established on 14 th of October, 1882, the University had also a Senate, but to establish the University, they had asked for a bigger contribution and for bigger contribution, more people had to get in to the Senate. As such, the Senate expanded. Earlier, it was a 70-member of the Senate, which in its very first meeting had decided to elect 15 members Executive Body and they designated it as “Syndicate”.