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Two lecturers petition against appointing Professor as V.C.

Two senior lecturers of Sri Jayawardenepura University have petitioned the Court of Appeal to prevent the Council of Jayawardenepura University from appointing Professor M.T.M. Jiffry as the university's vice-Chancellor and also to remove Professor Jiffry from his current position as the Head of the Department of Medical Education and Health Science, on the grounds he is unfit to hold the post.

The petitioners are Dr. K.R.D. de Silva, a senior lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Dr. A.K.E. Goonetilleke, the Head of the Department of Pharmacology.

The petitioners allege that Professor. Jiffry, who holds an MSc in Physiology and functions as a professor in Physiology is not academically qualified in Medical Education and Health Science (MED), but was appointed Head of the MED at its inception due to the absence of any senior lecturers within the MED.

The petitioners claim that Professor Jiffry - appointed to the position of the Head of MED in 1996 due to the absence of a qualified person- has not advertised for the recruitment of senior lecturers for the MED despite there being five cadre vacancies for the senior lecturers/probationary lecturers at the MED.

"The petitioners reasonably believe that the reason why no advertisement is made for the position of Senior Lecturer is so that there would be no person qualified or competent to hold the position of Head of MED from within the staff of that Department itself, thus enabling the second respondent (Professor Jiffry) to continue in office," the petitioners said in their application seeking a Writ of Mandamus and/or Certiorari in terms of Article 140 of the Constitution.

The petitioners further state that the first petitioner, Dr. K.R.D. de Silva had written to the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Professor Ranjith Mendis through the Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Professor Dayasiri Fernando calling to question the appointment of Professor Jiffry as the Head of the MED.

The petitioners say they are reasonably informed that the said letter was never delivered to the UGC chairman though received by Professor Fernando and Professor Jiffry.

Petitioners further state that Professor Jiffry is "demonstrably unfit to hold the position of the head of the MED and ought to be removed from the office". Further, they state that "in view of the serious charges/allegations against him, he is not fit to continue to hold the position of the Head of MED".

The petitioners allege that due to first petitioner's repeated concern about the unsatisfactory state of affairs at the MED, Professor Jiffry developed a personal animosity towards the first petitioner.

They say the first petitioner was charged and summoned for an inquiry into "certain offences" due to 'purported complaints" by some students of his department.

The petitioners say the first petitioner, Dr. Silva was later exonerated of all the charges by an Inquiry officer who instead found Professor Jiffry had " made use of students for the evil acts of gaining his own needs in taking revenge".

They further state though Professor Jiffry appealed against the order of the Inquiry officer, the Appeal Tribunal had affirmed the order of the Inquiry officer.

A Political Victimization Committee had arrived at a finding that the first petitioner had been politically victimised at the hands of Prof. Jiffry, the petitioners said in the application.

The petitioners further state that though the first petitioner repeatedly called upon the fourth respondent, Vice-Chancellor of Jayawardenepura University and the members of the University Council to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against Professor Jiffry in view of the above findings, no such inquiry has been initiated to date.

The respondents are the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Professor M.T.M. Jiffry, Professor Dayasiri Fernando, Dean of the Medical Faculty, Professor W.D.C. Wijebandara, acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and all the members of the university council - Professor W.S. Fernando, Mr W.H.E. Silva, Professor K.A.K.K. Wijewardana, Mr. Sudarshan Senaratne, D.K. Danapala, Professor Tissa Kariyawasam, Mahinda Abeywardene, Professor Sunil Ariyaratne, Dr. H.H.R. Samarasinghe, Venerable Horana Vajiragnana Thera, P. Geeganage, D.K. Subasingha, Dr. H.K. Navaratne, Mrs M.N. Edissoorya- and the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Professor Ranjith Mendis, chairman, UGC.

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