Panjab University has dispatched an appointment letter to Pawan Kumar, the younger brother of PhD scholar Jyoti, fulfilling an employment assurance made to her family after her death on the university’s South Campus. The family, however, says the appointment is not enough and is awaiting concrete action on the findings of a magisterial inquiry into electrical safety lapses.
A Panjab University spokesperson confirmed that the letter had been dispatched. The family is yet to receive it and wants to verify the appointment terms before completing the joining formalities. Jyoti’s paternal uncle, Jitendra Kumar, said the family would decide its next course of action after receiving the communication, while continuing to seek accountability from officials responsible for the identified lapses.
According to a university document dated July 28, the institution had agreed to offer employment to Pawan as an electrician during a meeting with Jyoti’s family on the day of her death. The appointment provides for a pay scale of Rs 19,900 plus Rs 400 grade pay, along with dearness allowance and other allowances under Punjab government rules, subject to eligibility and procedural requirements. The appointment letter states that Pawan will remain on probation.
The employment was part of a wider assistance package recorded by the university. The July 28 document also mentioned financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh from the vice-chancellor’s discretionary fund and Rs 11 lakh through the office of the dean student welfare.
The family’s demand for accountability follows the forwarding of the magisterial inquiry report by the Chandigarh deputy commissioner to the Panjab University vice-chancellor on October 27. The deputy commissioner asked the university to fix departmental responsibility on the sub-divisional engineer (electrical), the junior engineer-in-charge, the electrical inspector and other electrical maintenance staff according to their assigned duties.
The communication also called for departmental proceedings over lapses in inspection, maintenance, supervision and electrical safety management. It directed the university to conduct an immediate electrical safety audit of the South Campus and prioritise the rectification of identified defects.
Jyoti, 28, was pursuing a PhD in microbiology when she died near Girls Hostel No. 8 on the South Campus while proceeding to her department on July 28. The circumstances have placed university electrical maintenance and safety oversight under scrutiny, with the inquiry linking responsibility to specific institutional functions rather than treating the incident only as a matter of individual assistance.
The family has also questioned why two engineering officials suspended after Jyoti’s death were reinstated before the inquiry was completed. It has said that neither Panjab University nor the Union Territory administration officially provided it with the report, and that relatives shared copies after details appeared in newspaper reports.
The next steps are the family’s receipt of the appointment letter and the university’s action on the deputy commissioner’s directions, including the departmental proceedings, the South Campus electrical safety audit and rectification of defects identified through the inquiry.
