The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the petition of Delhi University teachers against introduction of semester system and said only the President, who is the Chancellor of the University, could take appropriate decision on the issue.
“The Chancellor will take cognisance…. If the Chancellor is satisfied, the Chancellor can overrule all the orders,” a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad said.
The bench stated this to Jayant Bhushan, counsel for the teachers after he submitted that not only the teachers were opposed to introduction of semester system but nearly 3,000 students had submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor as the curriculum for many streams has not yet been finalised.
In response to his argument, the bench put a specific query as who is the Chancellor of the university and when Bhushan said that the President is the ex-officio Chancellor, the top court said: “Why you want us to do this when Chancellor is seized of the matter.”
The top court also took serious view of the teachers using “harsh language” against the Delhi high court, which earlier had rejected their plea, and HRD minister Kapil Sibal in their petition. At one point, the apex court said if certain allegations were made against the HRD minister, then the cou-rt would have to make the ministry a party to enable it to respond to the allegations.