Row over tug of war between University of Delhi and Ambedkar University

New Delhi, May 20 (PTI) The employees association of the College of Art has written to Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for an urgent "equitable and just" action to stop the "merger'' of the college into Ambedkar University.

This came on the day the B R Ambedkar University issued a notification, beginning the admission process for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses in the College of Art.

In its letter on Thursday, the College of Art Employees Association has made a "distress call to protect the constitutional rights of the stakeholders of the college of Art".

"We, the employees of College of Art are aggrieved due to the allegedly initiated unjust merger of the college of Art into Ambedkar University," the letter read.

They also demanded that BS Chauhan, the principal, be sacked and asked Naidu to "reprimand" him for his "mischief" of dismemberment of the University of Delhi.

"...requesting you for an urgent equitable and just action stopping the "Merger'' immediately and also removing Dr. B.S. Chauhan from the position of Offg. Principal of College of Art, New Delhi," the letter stated.

Their other demand was to carry out admissions for the 2021-2022 session -- which allegedly did not take place due to this controversy -- to be conducted under the Delhi University (DU) “on war-footed priority”.

The association has alleged that the consent of stakeholders i.e. students and employees of the College of Art, was not taken by the management before starting the merger process.

The teachers threatened to "knock on the doors of the Court of Law" if no action was taken to stop the merger.

In April, the DU had asked the College of Art to start its admission process and stated that the institute will not be de-affiliated from the university.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor had earlier given in-principle approval to the merger of the College of Art with Ambedkar University, subject to its de-affiliation from DU.

However, the executive council of the DU, its highest decision-making body, refused to de-affiliate the college.

In March last year, the Delhi government had announced that the College of Art would be affiliated with Ambedkar University, as the college was "facing various problems".

On Tuesday, 11 teachers of DU's Academics for Action and Development had written to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, seeking his intervention after the College of Art started its admission process as part of the Ambedkar University.