The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) has rebutted the university's claim of approving the highest number of promotions in years and has said that the figures released lack important context.
In a statement, JNUTA said that while a total of 108 promotions have been approved in the past two years, hundreds of promotions are pending for the past many years. It added that such disparity means that the number of pending promotions of eligible teachers is many times more.
In the case of assistant professors alone, the number of those overdue to be promoted to associate professors is at least four times the promotions done so far, according to the JNUTA statement.
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In a press release posted on Twitter, JNU on October 31 said 108 promotions have been cleared during Vice Chancellor Prof. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit's tenure.
"JNU VC Prof Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has cleared and promoted 108 faculty in less than two years, the highest in JNU history," said JNU in tweet.
The JNUTA has, however, said the release does not reflect the full picture. It also announced the beginning of an agitation on the issue of promotions and announced a day of protest on November 17. Several promotions, says the teachers body, have been due since 2016.
The JNUTA in its statement provided the following break-up of pending promotions against the promotions granted so far during VC Pandit's tenure:
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1. While 37 associate professors have been promoted to professors, more than 104 promotions were pending when Pandit joined and now another 21 are due. This means as little as 30 per cent of due promotions have been cleared.
2. While 15 assistant professors have been promoted to associate professors, there are 47 teachers due for such promotions.
3. Out of the 200 odd cases of assistant professors, the university has only processed the cases of 56.
"All stages due of Assistant Professors have been only processed selectively, while others remain pending without any justification. Taking into account that many new colleagues who have joined recently would also have past service, the number of pending promotions clearly remains a very large and growing figure," said the JNUTA in the statement.
The JNU teachers body further said that such a situation has arisen out of the "hostile attitude of the administration towards the faculty". It further alleged that no attempt has been made to resolve the situation.
"No attempt has been made to resolve any issue, including the counting of past service continuing for more than seven years now. Instead, hurdle after hurdle is placed in the path of any faculty member seeking promotion, including the illegal use of chargesheet, stayed by the Court, as a pretext," said the statement.
