The appointment of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Secretary is likely to be further delayed after a legal notice was slapped on the commission by a SC candidate alleging bias over the selection of Akhilesh Gupta as secretary.
The UGC on Monday held an emergency meeting and reviewed the situation to rectify administrative lapses. Sources said the UGC had decided not to announce the selection of the secretary until the legal and administrative lapses are taken care of. Sources said that some of the members raised concerns the selection procedure of the UGC secretary.
Akhilesh Gupta, a scientist with the Department of Science and Technology, was picked by the selection committee after going through more than 40 names and short-listing six names. Though no one questioned the credentials of Akhilesh in the meeting, sources said that UGC will re-evaluate his candidature for the secretary post.
According to the norms for the selection for the UGC secretary, the selection committee should include Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) members. But the current committee does not have a representative of either SC or ST.
One of the shortlisted candidate had sent a legal notice to the UGC alleging bias.
Noting that there was a problem with the selection process, a member of the University Grants Commission said that the meeting reviewed the situation and corrective measures would be taken soon before the new secretary was announced.