Was served showcause notice after UGC panel found her guilty.
New Delhi |
Express news service,Updated: June 30, 2016 5:58 am
President
Pranab Mukherjee has given his nod to the Ministry of Human Resource
Development’s proposal to sack Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor Chandra
Krishnamurthy, who faces charges of plagiarism and misrepresentation.
While
Krishnamurthy had submitted her resignation earlier, a ministry official said
“the resignation is not valid as it is not addressed to the competent
authority, which is the Human Resource Development ministry. The ministry
raised objection to her submitting the resignation letter to the President, but
she didn’t comply. The recommendation to sack her was taken in consultation
with the law ministry.”
The ministry
sent the recommendation for her dismissal on June 26. Ministry officials said
with the President clearing her dismissal, Krishnamurthy would not be able to
take up a job in any government-run university.
Krishnamurthy
was served a showcause notice last August asking why she should not be
dismissed after a UGC panel found her guilty of plagiarism and
misrepresentation. She was accused of academic fraud amid allegations of
holding a fake PhD degree.
She was found
to have plagiarised much of her book, in addition to listing two books in her
CV which were never published. Soon after, the ministry appointed Anisa B Khan
as the officiating Vice-Chancellor.
This is the
second time the HRD ministry has dismissed a
Vice-Chancellor of a central university. Earlier, Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor
Sushanta Dattagupta was dismissed on charges of financial and administrative
irregularities.
Plagiarism to ‘academic fraud’, Pondicherry V-C’s term was mired in controversies
A case was also filed in the Madras HC on the violations committed by the then UPA regime in her selection.
Ever since
Chandra Krishnamurthy took charge as Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University
in November 2012, there was dissent, anger and a series of protests, by both
students and faculty.
Her first two
years were mired in controversies and allegations. From the reported renovation
of the V-C’s bungalow at a cost of several lakhs to two ragging victims being
punished — the Madras high court later fined the university — and transfer of
officials and academics who questioned irregularities.
Among those shunted out was then Registrar, Rajeev Yaduvanshi, who
was repatriated to his parent department after he sent a number of
reports to HRD Minister on financial irregularities and statutory violations. A case was also filed in the Madras HC on the violations committed by the then UPA regime in her selection.
Documents showed that then HRD Minister Pallam Raju recommended her name in the file forwarded to the President, although the rules state the ministry has to submit a list of three names in alphabetical order.
Then on November 22, 2014, The Indian Express reported that Krishnamurthy had plagiarised a book mentioned in her CV, which listed two other books that had not been published. Over 95 per cent of the book, which was also part of the Mumbai University curriculum, had been copied from papers authored by eminent law scholars, including Padma Shri N R Madhava Menon, founder of National Law School in Bengaluru.
And 24 of Krishnamurthy’s 25 research papers and publications listed in her CV — on legal and constitutional studies — did not exist in the UGC database or online repository for law schools.
Her CV was kept away from RTI provisions for several months, under ‘protected personal information’ category. Later, Yaduvanshi, using his appellate powers on an RTI appeal, made her CV available.
After Yaduvanshi’s repatriation, a group of professors of the Pondicherry University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) used modern character recognition and plagiarism software to expose the “academic fraud” in her 20-page CV. They also found that her D.Litt degree was fake, obtained from a fake Sri Lankan University — a finding that was confirmed by an HRD ministry probe panel later.
On Wednesday, Yaduvanshi, currently principal secretary of education in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said the dismissal was essential to restore the university’s academic integrity. While Krishnamurthy was appointed by the UPA regime, she is reported to have enjoyed influence with the NDA administration too.
“Who will compensate for the time and energy we wasted to expose a corrupt V-C? Who will compensate for the number of academic days and research projects we lost in this four-year-long fight, just because the HRD ministry wanted to protect her? Why were both Pallam Raju and Smriti Irani lenient towards her, despite getting dozens of petitions and official reports on her academic fraud and corruption,” asked a faculty member who was attacked on the campus for joining the protests.
It was only in August 2015 that Krishnamurthy agreed to go on leave, on the suggestion of the HRD ministry.
Welcoming the President’s decision on Wednesday, Dastagiri Reddy, general secretary of the Pondicherry University Teachers’ Association (PUTA), demanded that Krishnamurthy’s salary be recovered and charges levied on the perks she enjoyed during her tenure as V-C.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given his nod to the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s proposal to sack Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy, who faces charges of plagiarism and misrepresentation.
While Krishnamurthy had submitted her resignation earlier, a ministry official said “the resignation is not valid as it is not addressed to the competent authority, which is the Human Resource Development ministry. The ministry raised objection to her submitting the resignation letter to the President, but she didn’t comply. The recommendation to sack her was taken in consultation with the law ministry.”
Krishnamurthy was served a showcause notice last August asking why she should not be dismissed after a UGC panel found her guilty of plagiarism and misrepresentation. She was accused of academic fraud amid allegations of holding a fake PhD degree.
She was found to have plagiarised much of her book, in addition to listing two books in her CV which were never published. Soon after, the ministry appointed Anisa B Khan as the officiating Vice-Chancellor.
This is the second time the HRD ministry has dismissed a Vice-Chancellor of a central university. Earlier, Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta was dismissed on charges of financial and administrative irregularities.
