Thesis cheats beware! Academic plagiarism being made legal offence
- Neelam Pandey, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
| Updated: Jun 26, 2016 08:12 IST
A law to make
plaigiarism a legal offence is being drafted by the UGC after a raft of
plagiarism charges against central and states universities vice-chancellors and teachers in
the recent years.The government
plans to bring in a law to stop rampant plagiarism in academia, with punishment
ranging from a warning to deregistration in the case of students and dismissal
from service for teachers.
Higher
education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC) is finalising a draft
law — the first of its kind — that is likely to be sent to the human resource
development ministry for further action by June-end. Official sources said the
government intends to seek parliamentary approval for the law this year itself.
In the absence
of a law, educational institutions deal with cases of plagiarism individually.
Last year, the UGC made it mandatory for all universities to use
anti-plagiarism software to check PhD theses.
There has been
a raft of plagiarism charges against central university vice-chancellors and
teachers in recent years.
Pondicherry
University V-C Chandra Krishnamurthy quit last month after a prolonged standoff
with the HRD ministry, which had kept her on compulsory wait following
allegations that she plagiarised large parts of a book mentioned in her CV.
The ministry
recently sought Hyderabad Central University V-C Appa Rao Podile’s comments on
allegations of plagiarism in research papers co-authored by him.
There have been
similar charges against eminent scientists such as CNR Rao and RA Mashelkar in
the past.
“A regulation
is being prepared for prevention of plagiarism in higher education institutions
that will focus on all categories, including students pursuing Masters, MPhil
and PhD, and teachers at different levels,” said a senior UGC official.
Students will
be let off with a warning if it is a minor case of plagiarism. But as the
gravity of the charge increases, they may be barred from submitting a revised
manuscript of their thesis or research paper for six months or even have their
registration cancelled, said sources privy to the draft law.
“We want to ensure
intellectual honesty and academic integrity. There are different levels of
punishment depending on seriousness. It could be an advisory, a letter of
displeasure, censure (of teachers), et al. In some cases, we are including a
provision that such teachers or researchers will not be allowed to publish for
a certain period,” said a UGC source.
Former Delhi
University V-C Deepak Pental — who faced plagiarism charges that he challenged
in court — welcomed the move but said the UGC should not do it in isolation
and, instead, consult the Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of
Science, Bangalore.
“UGC should
form a committee to formulate what is plagiarism. Put academic work through
plagiarism software. Cut and paste has become very prominent. Sometimes, people
do it inadvertently too. We need to work hard against plagiarism and focus on
preventive rather than punitive action. If some one still does it, the
punishment should come from the universities though legal recourse should be
open too,” he said.
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BUT WHAT HAPPEN CHOR GRURU Prof. ANIL K.RAI ANKIT , Prof.ANIL KUMAR UPADHYAY, Prof.RAM MOHAN PATHAK AND THEIR PROTECTOR V.C.?
