The Delhi high court has sought a reply from University Grants Commission and the Delhi University as to how it keeps a tab on working hours/attendance of its teachers. HC’s order came after a PIL pitched for introducing the biometric system of attendance in Delhi University to ensure punctuality, alleging the teachers work for less than four hours daily, violating the minimum requirement of five hours as per the norm.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw gave DU and UGC time till September 19 to file their response, while hearing a PIL filed by Indian Council of Legal Aid and Advice.

The plea said that the biometric system should be introduced to ensure that a teacher "adheres to the teaching hours and days prescribed by the UGC and the university rules".

Advocate R K Saini, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the UGC in its regulations in 2010 provided that "universities and colleges must adopt at least 180 working days, that means there should be minimum of 30 weeks" of actual teaching.

The workload of teachers should not be less than 40 hours a week, apart from being available for at least five hours daily in the college.

"The working hours actually being put in by a lecturer/assistant professor/teacher in Delhi University daily are just about three and half hours assuming tutorials are held as against the UGC prescribed five hours," the petition complained.

The petition blamed DU for succumbing to pressure from the teachers union when it had unsuccessfully tried to implement the biometric system in December 2009.

[Source: Times of India]