DU yet to start biometric system

Even after more than 33 months of a contempt notice issued by the Delhi High Court (HC) for failing to implement the biometric attendance register, the Delhi University (DU) has not yet started any process to implement it.

The contempt notice was issued on issued on 30 August 2013 to the then Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh and Registrar Alka Sharma in a PIL filed by the Indian Council of Legal Aid and advice for not acting on the HC’s order was passed in September 2012 in which the court had asked DU to adopt the biometric system for attendance.“In order to increase teaching hours in the colleges of DU, the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2010 had asked the DU to make compulsory teaching for five hours. It had also asked DU to install the biometric attendance register for teachers and staff of the University, but the DU did not act on the guidelines,” a DU teacher said on the condition of anonymity. T.K. Das, DU registrar, did not respond on the issue.

However, Abha Dev Habib, professor and a former Executive Council (EC) member of DU, said: “DU teachers have been opposing the biometric attendance register as the work culture of the teaching community is such that any attendance system is not viable. A teacher in a DU college has to attend seminars and even spend time in the library; it is not possible to enter a class and get out of it after five hours,” Habib said. Rajesh Jha, incumbent Executive Council (EC) member of DU, said: “The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) and almost all the teachers’ groups linked to political parties on the campus have opposed this move. Due to pressure from the teachers’ community, the University has failed to implement the biometric attendance register.”

Responding to a PIL notice in September 2012, the DU, through the Registrar, had submitted an affidavit in the Delhi HC, stating that the university is committed to adopting the biometric system of attendance for its teachers .