HC stays DU’s decision suspending Prof Reazul

The High Court has stayed for six months the Dhaka University authorities' decision suspending Prof Reazul Haque of development studies. A High Court bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order on Sunday following a writ petition filed by the professor on April 7. The court also issued a rule asking the university authorities to explain why the suspension should not be declared beyond jurisdiction. The DU vice chancellor, two pro-VCs, registrar, dean of social science faculty, chairman of the development studies department have been asked to respond to the rule within four weeks. Prof Reazul was suspended by the university’s syndicate on February 27 for showing “obscene” materials when conducting a class of the women and development course in an evening Master’s batch, where the students were all Bangladesh Bank officials. A five-member investigation body, headed by Pro-VC (education) Prof Nasreen Ahmed, was formed to look into the matter. Jyotirmoy Barua, a lawyer for Reazul, said: “According to the university’s rules, there is no provision for temporary suspension.” The syndicate does not have the jurisdiction to temporarily suspend the teacher. Suspension is possible only after a probe report on the allegations brought against him, the lawyer added. Reazul was not even served any show cause notice, Jyotirmoy said, adding: “Now, for him, there is no legal bar to joining office.” According to media reports, the teacher was a victim of conspiracy by some students and teachers of the department. Reazul said: “I took this course in several other batches. The students who complained against me to the department’s chairman did not raise any question when I took the classes [before December] or checked the exam scripts.” Earlier, chairman of the department Prof Md Abu Yousuf had told the Dhaka Tribune: “We had asked him to change the subject after students objected in their course evaluation paper.” Yousuf said Reazul had not been formally asked to change the contents. “We asked him to do so over phone.”