Complaints are pouring out of prominent central universities about a “de-motivating” practice of denying duty leave and timely promotion to faculty members.

A group of JNU teachers held a 24-hour hunger strike in August to protest “delay and uncertainty” over promotions, pending allegedly for up to five years.

Now, allegations of delayed promotions have come from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). At Delhi University (DU), faculty have accused the authorities of denying duty leave.

Teachers need duty leave, for instance, to present papers at conferences or attend refresher or orientation courses — which is a requirement for promotion, too.

Law Centre-I, a law college under DU, has issued an order virtually blocking duty leave for faculty till December, with several academics and faculty associations terming it an “anti-academic step”. They have cited the rules of the University Grants Commission (UGC) that allow academic staff up to 30 days’ duty leave a year.

“It is to inform all that as per the direction of Professor In-Charge, Law Centre-I, no duty leave will be recommended/ sanctioned/ granted till the end of I/ III/ V Semesters 24-25 except emergency leave and that too be allowed/ approved in case of special circumstances,” the order said.

Pankaj Garg, mathematics professor at Rajdhani College under DU and president of the Indian National Teachers’ Congress (Intec), said the order would de-motivate teachers.

“The order violates UGC rules. Duty leave gives faculty an opportunity to attend conferences where they interact with experts and exchange ideas,” he told The Telegraph.

“Refresher courses are useful in enhancing domain knowledge. Denial of duty leave means the denial of
academic pursuit by faculty members.”

He said Intec had demanded the withdrawal of the notification. A response is awaited to an email sent by this newspaper to vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh seeking his perspective on the matter.

As at JNU, professors at BHU have alleged the selective promotion of preferred teachers and the denial of promotions to other fully eligible faculty members.

A history and archaeology professor at the university has approached Allahabad High Court over the denial of promotion to her.

Another professor, who has been teaching at BHU for the past 17 years and had applied for a senior professorship, said he was denied despite having fulfilled all the criteria.

Under UGC rules, a professor can be promoted to senior professor on the basis of academic achievement and favourable reviews from three eminent subject experts.

The candidate needs to have served as a professor for at least 10 years, guided at least two PhD students during this period, and published at least 10 papers.

“The committee that interviewed me had just one expert from my subject, which is education. All the three committee members should have been education experts. The constitution of the committee was wrong,” the professor said, requesting anonymity.

He said he had heard the committee had advised against promoting him.

The professor said about a dozen eligible faculty members at BHU had been denied promotion to senior professor in interviews held in August and September.