Former Deputy Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council B.R. Patil has written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, who is the Visitor of Central University of Karnataka (CUK), requesting two enquiries – one into alleged irregularities in the appointment of teaching staff and the other into alleged irregularities and corruption in the administration of the university.
Mr. Patil has mentioned two recruitment notifications – 25/2019 dated May 4, 2019, and 26/2019 dated September 25, 2019 – issued by the CUK for the recruitment of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors, and alleged that the authorities had grossly violated the regulations in force throughout the recruitment process.
“… the candidates who did not have enough research papers published in the UGC-CARE List journals were considered. The scrutiny committees, instead of rejecting such candidates, sent them to the next level in the recruitment process. It was a violation of the UGC guidelines and a compromise of the quality of teaching in the premier institution. Also, it was a huge injustice to the candidates who did not have enough research papers published in the UGC-CARE List journals and, hence, did not apply. There could be many candidates among them who are better competent than those who are selected. The appointing authorities in the CUK committed such a gross violation just to accommodate candidates of their choice who did not meet the eligibility conditions,” Mr. Patil wrote in the letter.
The Hindu had carried a story on alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Professors and Associate Professors (Notification 26/2019).
Alleging ‘rampant violations’ in reservation of posts as well, the Congress leader cited a few examples of de-reserving and changing reservation of posts.
“… the post for Professor in the Department of Chemistry was originally reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) as per the roster maintained in the university. However, in the recruitment notification (26/2019), the post was made Unreserved, and a candidate from the Unreserved Category was appointed. Similarly, there were two posts of Associate Professor vacant in the Department of Physics, and one was reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and the other was reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), as per the roster maintained in the university. However, in the recruitment notification (26/2019), a post reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) was changed to Other Backward Classes (OBC),” Mr. Patil said adding that de-reserving and changing the reservation from one category to another requires a lengthy procedure, which was not followed by the CUK authorities with a malicious intention of accommodating the candidates of their choice.
Mr. Patil also said that Basavaraj Donur, Registrar of CUK, was facing charges of illegally issuing a BA (Hons) degree in English to an ineligible student, who had not passed the required examination, by taking undue advantage of his position as Head of the Department of English and In-charge Controller of Examination. Mr. Donur’s appointment as Associate Professor in the CUK itself was in question, as he did not meet the eligibility criteria set by the UGC on the day of his appointment.
“I seek your intervention as Visitor of CUK for correcting the wrongdoings and putting the CUK on the right track for serving the purpose of its establishment,” Mr. Patil concluded the letter requesting the constitution of enquiry committees.
