Emeritus Professorship at Jnu

Professor Romila Thapar, the well-known historian and my long-time colleague at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), received a letter from the Registrar of JNU in July 2019, asking her to submit hercurriculumvitae (CV) so that a committee appointed by the university could evaluate her work and decide whether she should continue as professor emerita of the JNU. Thapar retired in 1991 and was made emeritus soon after.

The current Executive Council of the JNU seems to be unaware of even the meaning of an emeritus professorship. It seems to think that it is an appointment against a post for which there are multiple applications. An emeritus position is completely different. There are no posts and nobody ever applies for it. It is an honour conferred for life by the university on a retiring or retired professor in appreciation of their outstanding past work. This is true of every university in the world. This current action of the JNU contradicts the very basis on which the status of professor emeritus was conferred on retired faculty in the JNU.