JNU cannot cancel student's candidature because there is no PhD supervisor: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court recently held that the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) cannot cancel candidature of a PhD student on the ground that there is no supervisor available for supervisions. .Justice C Hari Shankar said that JNU cannot ask a PhD candidate to find himself a supervisor either.It is for JNU and JNU alone to assign a supervisor, the Court stressed.“The JNU could not, therefore, have called upon the petitioner (a PhD candidate) to find a supervisor for himself. The task of finding a supervisor for a Ph.D. scholar is unequivocally cast, by the JNU’s own Ordinance 6.1, on the Committee for Advance Studies and Research (CASR), or the equivalent department in the JNU. The request, in the communication dated 18 May 2023, to the petitioner, to obtain a written consent from his prospective supervisor was, therefore, ex facie without jurisdiction or authority,” the Court said..Justice Hari Shankar also rejected a contention that even though the statute or ordinances do not permit JNU to take such a recourse (to cancel the candidature of PhD student on the ground of there being no supervisor), the same can be done relying on ‘past practises.'The judge was of the view that the JNU ought to jettison such ‘past practises’ at the earliest as any such practise is illegal..The Court made the observations while reinstating one Nazar Mohammad Mohaideen S as a PhD scholar at JNU’s Special Centre for Molecular Medicine (SCMM).His supervisor, Professor Shailja Singh had written to the University alleging that Mohaideen was visiting the lab at late hours with strangers, which was a security threat. Singh also complained that Mohaideen was irregular in attending the lab and was insincere in performing the work assigned to him.As disputes arose between Mohaideen and Professor Singh, the latter expressed her unwillingness to supervise Mohaideen’s PhD.On October 4, 2023, JNU wrote to Mohaideen stating that since there is no other person available to supervise him, he cannot continue as a scholar at the SCMM..After considering the case, the Court set aside the JNU’s order suspending the petitioner and said that the University shall take steps to assign a supervisor to him in two weeks.The Bench recorded the petitioner’s statement that he would have no issues in being supervised by Professor Singh and would ensure that there would be no cause for any grievance to be raised by the supervisor..Advocates M Yogesh Kanna, Prakriti Rastogi, Azad Bansala, Vasu Kalra and Monica Saini appeared for the petitioner Nazar Mohamed Mohaideen S.JNU was represented through Central Government Standing Counsel Monika Arora as well as advocates Subhrojeet Saha, Kushal and Ranjeet Kumar..[Read Judgment]