Pachauri goes on leave to skip convocation

Amid outrage over his appointment as TERI’s Executive Vice-Chairman, R K Pachauri has proceeded on leave on Thursday and will skip TERI University’s convocation on March 7 after a group of students refused to receive degrees from him.

Despite facing sexual harassment charges, Pachauri, the Chancellor of the University, was recently elevated to the newly created post, a move which triggered severe criticism from the alumni and women activists across the country.

“Yes. He is on leave. I can confirm this as his position as Chancellor of the TERI University. As Chancellor, he is on leave. He communicated this on Thursday.

“The convocation is on March 7. He (Pachauri) would not be attending it,” Rajiv Seth, acting V-C of TERI varsity said.

Asked who would be holding the position of Chancellor during Pachauri’s absence, Seth said it is yet to be decided and since the V-C is involved in the day-to-day affairs of any university, Pachauri’s going on leave will not affect the institution’s functioning in any way.

“That has not been decided yet. His position was of a Chancellor. One who gets involved in day-to-day things is the V-C in any university. So it does not affect the functioning of the university in any way,” Seth said.

Asked to comment on the letter that was written to him by the alumni, Seth said that opinions must be debated and the university will never suppress them. “We always had a spirit of openness and debate at the university. It is okay if people come up with opinions, we must debate it.

“We would not like to suppress any opinion. It is very important as an academic institution to have an openness and open debate. At TERI, which is research university, this is encouraged even more,” he said.

Some alumni of 2013-2015 batch, had on Wednesday written to Seth saying the recent “inaction” of the board of management at TERI University with respect to Pachauri “deeply saddened” them.

“Pachauri’s continuing presence at the top is completely antithetical to our convictions as alumni and graduates of TERI University. 

“We would like to make it explicitly clear that we are not in a position to accept our degrees from him at the upcoming convocation on March 7, 2016.