Dr Rajendra Khimani resigned as the Vice Chancellor to the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad Sunday. Khimani submitted his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat, the Chancellor of the university, who has accepted the same.
Prof Bharat Joshi (61) has been notified to replace the outgoing VC and take charge with immediate effect Monday. A senior professor from the Department of Education, Prof Joshi was the Registrar for two years from May 2019 to June 2021 when Anamik Shah was the Vice-Chancellor.
The development comes in the wake of Gujarat High Court order of September 2022 that had directed the Gujarat Vidyapith to ‘pass appropriate orders’ within eight weeks based on the report by University Grants Commission (UGC) that had sought Khimani’s dismissal owing to observation of procedural lapses in his appointment. The HC had also cited lapses by Khimani on the administrative and financial functioning during his tenure as the Registrar.
Vidyapith had then requested for an extension of the eight-week deadline owing to the ill health of late Chancellor Elaben Bhatt.
On January 2, the Board of Trustees had unanimously appointed four new trustees. This was after eight out of the 24 trustees resigned citing “unethical use of power” for Chancellor Governor Acharya Devvrat’s appointment and alleging ‘it was neither spontaneous nor the unanimous decision of the Board of Trustees but under crass political pressure’ in October 2022.
Khimani’s appointment as Vidyapith VC was always under scanner. In December 2020, the University had declared Khimani’s name as the Vice-Chancellor to which UGC had objected citing flouting of norms in the selection process. On June 29, 2021, nearly six months after his appointment that was soon followed by its cancellation, he was appointed to the same position again.
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