New Delhi: Teachers and lawyers supporting sacked UGC member Yogendra Yadav on Saturday demanded that he be reinstated with immediate effect and termed his removal as "illegal".
DUTA president Nandita Narayan criticised the government`s move and claimed the entire Delhi University teacher`s fraternity is behind Yadav, lawyer Shanti Bhushan said the government stands little chance if the ruling is challenged in court.
"He (Yadav) must be reinstated with honour and an apology must be rendered and the issues which Yadav has taken up should be looked into," Narayan said.
She maintained Yadav was removed as a member because he had raised his voice against some of the UGC`s decisions.
"He raised his voice against the implementation of the four-year undergraduate course and also questioned the manner in which a particular teacher`s training institute was going to be set up in the minister`s constituency without even having a Department of Education,"she said.
Narayan said a campaign would be launched across the country to drum up support for Yadav and pressurise the government to reinstate him in UGC. She also said the 10,000- strong teaching community of DU were also against Yadav`s removal.
Asked whether any legal action will be taken, Narayan said DUTA would not take the legal course and it is upto Yadav to initiate that. Bhushan said Yadav can alone go to court as the latter will not take any petition independently.
Yadav was sacked as an UGC member on September 19 for being a member of Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with the government saying his association with the apex body of higher education may give a scope for its "future politicisation".
Hitting out at the Centre, Shanti Bhushan, who is also associated with Aam Admi Party, alleged Yadav`s removal from UGC by the central government is "thoroughly illegal".
"If challenged, it does not have even two percent chance of being sustained in court and yet the government has made this order in the secure belief that such an eminent person like Yadav would not challenge it in court," Bhushan said.
Terming it as "disgusting", Justice R Sachar charged the government is interfering in academics. "It is too serious a matter. I would advise Yadav to throw it in the government`s face," he said.
PTI
