The teachers of Jadavpur University have written to vice-chancellor Suranjan Das and urged him “to ensure and limit the duration of meetings to a reasonable span of time”, considering that in the recent past many teachers who attended academic bodies’ meetings were confined till late in the night.

In this “backdrop” of such confinement, the teachers have written: “We urge the administration to ensure and limit the duration of meetings.”

The letter was sent a week after the dean of engineering, Amitava Datta, resigned following what sources close to him said was pressure from students and at least four instances of being gheraoed till late night.

A teacher said in the past one month whenever they had received any memorandum from students’ bodies, it was found that the representation went on for an inordinate length of time.

“And then the students resort to gherao following a difference of opinion, leading to confinement through the night. It is better to tell the students beforehand that it is a time-bound meeting....”

Dean Datta and the two pro-vice-chancellors had been confined for several hours on December 9, the day the students’ union in the engineering faculty launched a protest against alleged errors in results and delay in their publication. On December 11, during a meeting on the issue, some students prevented other members from leaving the venue even after the discussions had ended. Datta and others were detained till 1.30am.

The teachers have written: “We always appreciate the spirit of dissent in democracy but we strongly feel that the democratic right of a section cannot curb the democratic rights of others.”

On the alleged delay in publication of results, the letter says: “The examination section needs immediate strengthening by proper augmentation of skilled manpower and filling up of vacancies.”