Kerala University (KU) has initiated disciplinary action against top officials of the MSM College, Kayamkulam, for their alleged lapse in preventing the M.Com admission of a former Students’ Federation of India (SFI) on the basis of fake degree certificates.
The Syndicate, which met on Saturday, decided to serve show-cause notices on the college Principal, Vice-Principal, and the head of the Commerce department in connection with the now-cancelled admission of Nikhil Thomas who was arrested for submitting fake certificates in the name of Kalinga University to gain M.Com admission in the college.
The university had earlier summoned the senior officials of the college, including those who retired from service, for a hearing last month after finding its initial explanation of the issue to be unsatisfactory. The Syndicate decided to issue the notices after the college failed to prove its innocence in the controversial admission.
While the Principal and the head of the Commerce department have been faulted for their lapses, the Vice-Principal who is also the college’s public information officer has come under scrutiny for purportedly ignoring an application submitted under the Right to Information Act that supposedly flagged the questionable move to grant admission to Mr. Thomas. They had been provided 15 days to furnish their responses, official sources said.
The university had earlier flagged the college’s failure to maintain a student life cycle management system, which led to the glaring absence of student records. It also permanently debarred the former student from pursuing any of its programmes or appearing for examinations. Steps have also been adopted to invalidate the results of all undergraduate examinations he had written under the university.
