Centre withdraws order to scrap Panjab University Senate & Syndicate

The Union ministry of education has withdrawn its notification to restructure the senate and syndicate related to the Panjab University (PU),effectively restoring the earlier governance system of the 143-year-old institution. A new notification issued by the Centre on Thursday, under Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, rescinded the November 4 notification, which had announced governance reforms but said that the same would come into force on a future date. The original notification announcing the reforms came on October 28 but was withdrawn subsequently.

“After the issue of the order, various feedback were received from stakeholders like students, teachers, former VCs, and the current VC of the Panjab University. The Ministry of Education also considered the inputs received in meetings with various student organisations. Having regard to the above, it has now been decided by the Ministry of Education that the aforesaid order changing the constitution & composition of the senate and syndicate shall stand rescinded,” the Centre said late on Friday evening. However, the Centre had not made any changes in the number of ex-officio members from Punjab and Chandigarh, and made just one addition by including the Chandigarh MP as its member.

The Centre had sought to reduce the number of senate members, the apex governing body in place since its inception, from 97 to 31, abolish elections to the syndicate, the executive body, and scrap the registered graduate constituency, a unique feature of PU’s democratic governance model.

The ruling AAP said the Centre's decision to rescind its notification altering the constitution and composition of the Panjab University Senate and Syndicate was not an act of generosity, but an "admission of guilt". In a post on X, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and MP Malvinder Singh Kang said the university is “the living conscience of Punjab -- resilient, free and unyielding”, asserting that “any hand that dares to subvert it must know: Punjab resists, and Punjab remembers.”