The process of appointment of new members to the executive council (EC) of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is “under active consideration” of the education ministry over three years after the tenure of the old members ended, the government has said following allegations of irregularities at the varsity.

According to the BHU Act, the EC is the executive body of the university and is in charge of the management and administration of the institution.

The EC comprises the vice-chancellor and eight other members nominated by the President who is the Visitor. The eight members’ tenure ended in June 2021. The education ministry sends the names of candidates to the Visitor for nomination to the EC for three years.

The BHU Act empowers the VC to address any emergency without waiting for the EC, but the VC has to seek the council’s approval of his actions in its next meeting. If any person is affected by the VC’s decision, he may appeal to the EC within 30 days of the action taken.

Virendra Singh, a member of the Lok Sabha from Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday alleged that the Centre was allowing irregularities to continue at BHU by delaying the formation of the EC.

Singh had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on August 9 during Zero Hour and demanded the formation of the EC at the earliest. In response, minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar wrote a letter to him on September 28 to say that the process of appointment was at an“advanced stage”.

“Please refer to the matter raised by you during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on 09-08-2024 regarding the delay in constitution of Executive Council of BHU. In this regard, it is stated that the proposal for appointment of members in the Executive Council of BHU is under active consideration in the Ministry and is at advanced stage of finalisation,” the letter stated.

Two officials of the education ministry told The Telegraph that the appointments were yet to be made.

Singh alleged that the century-old university in the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was running in an “authoritarian manner”.

“The VC is taking suo motu decisions without caring for the EC since it does not exist. The promotions are arbitrarily done. Penal actions are taken against persons who question his decisions. The development activities have been affected,” Singh said.

“Can there be any reason for not appointing EC members for three years? It is shocking that after three years, the process has reached only ‘advanced stage’. I feel this has been done deliberately to give a free hand to the VC to do all wrong things,” he added.

The three-year tenure of VC S.K. Jain is set to end in January. He may become the first VC to end his term by surviving on invoking emergency powers without conducting the EC meeting for once.

One of the key functions of the EC is to approve the selection of faculty members. However, Jain has used his emergency power to bypass that requirement.

An email was sent to higher education secretary Sanjay Murthy last month to understand the ministry’s perspectives on the delay in the constitution of the EC. His response is awaited.

Order to varsities

The education ministry has asked all central universities to hold their meetings inside the campus. Earlier, the meetings used to be held in Delhi.