Topic: Dashboard Theme / Module hooks issue
Managed to make the dashboard module/theme work as it should by hardcoding the inclusion of jquery-1.3.2.js file and investigated it's cause.
modules/dashboard/hooks.php declares function install_tabs().
Function install_tabs() lists the js files to be included (array $js_userlib) by using the function add_js_ufile().
Function add_js_ufile() (uses full URI / local path and filename) is defined in includes/main.inc along with another function add_js_file().
Only the function add_js_file() (uses only filename) does a file exists check in the fixed webroot's js location as well, using the file include list in array $js_static.
Both add js functions make sure that each file/URI is included only once from their respective arrays.
The file includes/page/header.inc declares the function send_scripts() which includes the files in the $js_static array (from company/#/js_cache/*.js or js/*.js) first and then includes the files from the $js_userlib array with no checks (neither existence nor once only inclusion)
The renderer class is instantiated in both the page_header() and page_footer() functions with the same name $rend.
Another function add_js_source() is also defined in includes/main.inc where the js to be included is in $text variable sent as an argument but is used in the function page_footer() defined in includes/page/footer.inc and is not used here.
The way out here would be to include the jquery scripts int the main webrootjsfolder itself and switch theadd_js_ufile()function to theadd_js_file()function for the said files in the themodules/dashboard/hooks.phpfile. The main menu click determines the $path_to_root as "./" but the submenu click sees it as "../../" though the global one is "../" for it, which confounds the js inclusion function.
It is possible that many extensions will use the jquery function and this will avoid duplicate files - versions of the jquery will however have to be taken into account for the specific extension concerned.