Delhi High Court seeks Centre's response on plea against appointment of Mazhar Asif as Jamia VC

The Delhi High Court recently sought the response of the Central government and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University to a plea challenging the appointment of Professor Mazhar Asif as Vice Chancellor of the University [Vishal Kumar Rai Vs Union Of India & Ors.]. .Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Union Ministry of Education, JMI University, Professor Mazhar Asif, President’s Secretariat and the Search-cum-Selection Committee that was constituted for the appointment. .The petitioner Vishal Rai, a practicing lawyer, stated in his petition that the appointment was made in colourable exercise of power and in violation of the JMI Act and the University Grants Commission Regulations.He stated that there was illegal constitution and arbitrary recommendation of names for the post by the Search-cum-Selection Committee.Rai also contended that there was illegal interference by the Union Ministry of Education in the appointment process..Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, appearing for the University, raised questions regarding the maintainability of the petition on point of his locus. He also raised doubts about the authenticity of documents annexed to the petition by Rai..Advocate Amit George, appearing for Rai, stated that since JMI University is under Central government, a petition challenging the appointment can be filed by any citizen without setting out the locus in filing the petition. He also submitted that the annexed documents in the petition were obtained through a publicly available source. .The Court issued notice on the petition subject to the objection on the point of maintainability. The matter will be heard next on July 16..Besides George, advocates Rakshita Goyal and Ibansara Syiemlieh appeared for the petitioner.Central Government Standing Counsel Monika Arora with Advocates Subhrodeep Saha and Prabhat Kumar appeared for the Central government.Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma with Standing Counsel KK Mishra appeared for Jamia Millia Islamia University.Advocates Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra, Sugam Kumar Jha and Tribhuvan appeared for Professor Mazhar Asif.Advocates Ankur Chhibber and Nikunj Arora appeared for the Visitor's Nominee and members of Executive Council of the University.[Read Order]