By Gurminder Singh Samad I Samvad Patar
PATIALA — Punjabi University, Patiala is fighting for its financial and academic survival, crushed under a loan burden running into hundreds of crores and an annual interest outflow of around ₹14 crore. In such a moment, the 2026 PUTA (Punjabi University Teachers’ Association) election is not a routine union poll; it is effectively a vote on whether the teachers’ body will act as the university’s moral shield or as an extension of the same power structure that led it into crisis.
One important clarification at the outset: the outgoing PUTA President is Bhupinder Singh Virk. The current reform agenda and the 25‑point manifesto are being led by Prof. Gurnam Singh Virk as the presidential candidate of the Progressive Teachers’ Alliance (PTA). Gurnam enters this election as a former PUTA Secretary and senior faculty member with a rare reputation for personal integrity and rule‑based struggle in a deeply compromised system.
His main rival is Dr. Nishan Singh Deol, a former PUTA office‑bearer and senior administrator whose official inquiry record carries phrases such as “malafide intention to cheat UGC to embezzle funds” and “punishable offence.” The choice before teachers is, therefore, neither abstract nor emotional; it is a choice between a clean, rights‑based leadership and a candidate whose own record makes him structurally dependent on administrative mercy.
What the Inquiry Record Really Says About Deol
The debate around Dr. Nishan Singh Deol’s candidacy is based on formal documents, not hearsay. An internal inquiry coordinated by Dr. Gurpreet Pannu concluded that, in the light of facts, Dr. Deol as Head and supervisor had committed a serious violation of rules and that action under university regulations was required.
After this, a departmental inquiry was conducted by Justice (Retd.) Zora Singh as Inquiry Officer. His report was placed before the Syndicate under the Punjab Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 1970. The report established that two Ph.D. students, Chamkaur Singh and Neelam Kumari, were simultaneously drawing regular salaries elsewhere (one as Assistant Professor in Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, and the other as a regular Patwari in District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar) while also receiving UGC scholarships from Punjabi University on the basis of absentee reports.
These absentee reports were signed by the students and by Dr. Nishan Singh Deol as their Guide and Head of the Physical Education Department. The inquiry officer noted that these students could not possibly be present in different towns and different institutions on the same dates and concluded that the absentee reports were falsely prepared.
Justice Zora Singh wrote in his report that evidence clearly showed false record had been prepared, namely absentee reports, with malafide intention to cheat UGC and embezzle funds by Dr. Nishan Singh Deol, and that Dr. Deol had committed a punishable offence.
The Vice‑Chancellor recorded that Dr. Deol’s written explanation and personal hearing were not satisfactory and stated that the charges were very serious. On this basis, the case was referred to the Syndicate for penalty. The Syndicate chose to impose the penalty of “withholding of increments of pay with cumulative effect” rather than dismissal. For many teachers, this is a textbook example of how the system admits wrongdoing but still protects its own, creating leaders who enter future negotiations already compromised.
The Old Order: Debt, Silence and Proximity
The Progressive Teachers’ Front (PTF), led by Dr. Deol, uses the language of “restoring prestige” to Punjabi University. But the institutional memory of the campus tells a harsher story. It was during and after the earlier era that Punjabi University’s finances slid into crisis, the deficit ballooned, and the university was pushed into a long‑term debt trap that today translates into an interest payment of about ₹14 crore every year.
In those years, Dr. Deol was not on the margins. He was Head of the Physical Education Department, held influential administrative roles, and was part of the Vice‑Chancellor’s inner circle. At the same time, the teachers’ association of that period remained largely tamed, failing to mount a sustained struggle against fiscal mismanagement, irregular appointments, and the dismantling or diluting of important academic structures.
It is precisely in this context of administrative proximity and union silence that the absentee‑report fraud documented by Justice Zora Singh took place. The subsequent soft landing given by the Syndicate did not erase the findings; it only underlined the gap between proven misconduct and actual accountability.
Today’s PTF slate, with Dr. Deol as president‑candidate and colleagues like Dr. Gurjeet Singh Bhathal and others in key positions, has released a 31‑point manifesto and opposes certain changes in promotion policy. But for many teachers, the core question remains: can the same networks that were central to the old order now credibly claim to lead a clean and independent fight for teachers’ rights?
The Virk Option: Clean Image, Documented Delivery
Against this backdrop, Prof. Gurnam Singh Virk represents a very different kind of candidacy. He has already served once as PUTA Secretary and is now the face and principal strategist of the PTA’s 25‑point manifesto for 2025–26. Instead of revolving around vague promises, this manifesto is anchored in what has already been delivered during the past year when the PTA‑aligned PUTA majority held responsibility.
When PTA took charge in 2024–25, the biggest and most serious issue was the long‑pending promotions of teachers. At that time, hundreds of
promotions had been used as bargaining chips and kept hanging for years. PTA had promised in its earlier manifesto that these promotions would be cleared on priority. In the last one year, more than 125 promotions have been processed and granted. PTA now repeats its commitment that the remaining pending promotions will be cleared at the earliest, with continuous efforts to ensure that all eligible colleagues get their due.
On the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS), UGC Regulations 2018 clearly lay down the rules. There is no provision that requires plagiarism checking of research papers at the time of CAS promotion. Yet, the present administration has, from 2026, imposed a compulsory plagiarism check for CAS cases in a legally questionable manner. PTA has opposed this illegal condition from within PUTA, repeatedly registering formal objections and demanding its withdrawal. Immediately after the PUTA elections, the PTA leadership has pledged to use every possible means to get this decision cancelled. If needed, it is prepared to launch a focused struggle to defend teachers’ rights on this issue.
In the same February 2026 Syndicate meeting, a new rule was passed stating that a teacher can submit a CAS promotion application only within three months before or three months after the due date. This artificial window is against the spirit and letter of UGC Regulations 2018. PTA has declared this rule unjust and illegal and has committed itself to having it withdrawn.
UGC Regulations 2018 also provide for promotion of Professors to the post of Senior Professor under CAS. Punjabi University has already adopted these regulations on paper, but the Senior Professor provision has not been properly implemented. PTA has promised to ensure that this rule is actually enforced. Its clear commitment is that all Professors who fulfil the required qualifications and service conditions will be given their due promotion to Senior Professor at the earliest.
PTA has also emphasised that financial benefits associated with promotions, including arrears, should be released without delay. It has pledged that in future, when a promotion is granted, all related financial benefits will be released promptly so that teachers do not have to beg for what is rightly theirs.
Another sensitive issue was that of 62 teachers whose appointments had been questioned by the university administration. These teachers have now received clean chits from the Vigilance authorities. PTA has promised that these colleagues will be given their due promotions from the correct dates with full dignity and respect, so that the shadow on their careers is finally removed.
The manifesto further commits to pressurising the administration to advertise posts of those who have been serving on ad hoc basis for long periods, ensuring that long‑term ad hoc teachers get a fair chance at regularisation. It also promises to secure withheld increments and arrears for ad hoc staff, to fight for release of pending DA instalments, to raise the examination work remuneration to levels comparable with other universities in Punjab, and to end arbitrary fines and unfair treatment of teachers by the examination branch.
At the financial and welfare level, PTA promises to work for timely clearance of medical bills and retirement benefits, re‑starting the long‑stalled LTC scheme, introducing a Group Health Insurance Scheme for teachers, implementing quota for teachers’ children in postgraduate courses, making sabbatical leave rules transparent and fair, securing the benefit of 300 units of free electricity for campus residents as announced by the Punjab government, rationalising maintenance charges for campus housing, implementing the old pension scheme where applicable, ensuring payment of around 84 months of pending 7th Pay Commission arrears, and reviving Ph.D. increments in line with UGC 2018 guidelines.
Finally, recognising the faculty shortage and the need to maintain teaching standards, PTA has also promised to press strongly for increasing the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years.
Taken together, this is not a token manifesto. It is a comprehensive programme that combines integrity with technical understanding of rules, and it is anchored in one year of demonstrated delivery rather than decades of silence.
Integrity as a Strategic Asset, Not Just a Moral Pose
Punjabi University’s crisis is financial, but the root of the problem is governance and culture. An institution that has accumulated massive debt and pays crores every year in interest cannot be rescued by the very habits of “adjustment,” “setting,” and selective silence that created the mess.
This is where the contrast between Gurnam Singh Virk and Nishan Singh Deol becomes decisive.
Dr. Deol comes into this election with an inquiry record that clearly states he was involved in preparing false records with malafide intent to cheat a funding agency and embezzle funds, and that he committed a punishable offence. The fact that he was spared dismissal and only had his increments withheld does not wipe out the findings. It only means that his continued presence and rise in the system remain tied to the goodwill of the same administrative structures that protected him.
Prof. Gurnam Singh Virk, on the other hand, is widely seen by colleagues as an honest, accessible leader who has not been touched by personal corruption allegations. His work as a former PUTA Secretary and his role in PTA’s recent struggles show a preference for documented, rule‑based action over private deals. In an environment where files and vigilance are often used as weapons, having a union president who is not himself on the defensive is not just a moral luxury; it is a strategic necessity.
An Honest Judgment: Why the Presidency Should Go to Virk
When teachers walk into the polling booth for the 2026 PUTA election, they will be thinking about pending promotions, blocked arrears, unfair rules, career insecurity, and the fragile future of Punjabi University. They will also remember who spoke when the university was sliding and who stayed quiet, who was pulled up by official inquiries and who used documents and courts to defend colleagues.
On one side is a candidate whose name appears in an inquiry report alongside phrases like “false record,” “malafide intention to cheat UGC,” “embezzle funds,” and “punishable offence,” and who survived only because the Syndicate chose a soft penalty. On the other side is a candidate who has served as PUTA Secretary, helped lead a one‑year record of promotions and legal interventions through PTA, and is regarded by many as the most honest and dependable leader to have emerged in the campus politics of recent years.
An honest judgment, based on available documents and recent performance, leads to a clear conclusion: if PUTA is to function as the teachers’ shield, and not as the Syndicate’s leash, then the presidency in 2026 should go to Prof. Gurnam Singh Virk.
