The Delhi High Court has sought response of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on one of its professors' plea challenging rejection of his request for leave to pursue a nine-months fellowship offered by a French research institute. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought response of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on one of its professors' plea challenging rejection of his request for leave to pursue a nine-months fellowship offered by a French research institute. Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the university and sought its stand by September 7 on the professor's plea seeking grant of leave to pursue the fellowship. The August 20 order came on the plea of Udaya Kumar, a professor in the Department of English Studies in JNU, challenging the university's executive council's February 18 decision to reject his application dated January 21, 2020 for extraordinary leave (EOL) without pay for nine months from October 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. In his petition, filed through advocate Abhik Chimni, Prof Kumar has also sought setting aside of JNU's letters dated March 3, June 12 and July 7 which reject his requests, for EOL without pay for nine months, allegedly without giving any reasons. He has stated in his plea that he has been offered a Fellowship at the Nantes Institute of Advanced Study, France, for a period of nine months from October 2020, which is a Research Institute of Global eminence. The professor has contended that in the past four years he has not availed an EOL and in his entire academic career, he has only availed two EOLs. He has also claimed that both the chairperson for English Studies and the dean, who is the head of the School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies under which the centre operates have also recommended his application for EOL, but the executive council rejected it. Mr Kumar has also contended that the council exercised its discretionary power in a completely arbitrary fashion without any deliberation and application of mind. He has sought a direction to the varsity to reconsider his application for EOL and grant him the same.