A meeting of the Syndicate sub-committee on legal affairs of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit held on Tuesday verified various documents related to admissions for PhD programme in Malayalam in the academic year 2019-20.
The panel was constituted to probe the complaint that norms were tweaked to help K. Vidya, former leader of the Students’ Federation of India, secure admission to the PhD programme. The allegation emerged soon after she allegedly submitted a fake teacher experience certificate to gain appointment as guest faculty at the R.G.M. Government Arts and Science College at Attapady.
The committee is learnt to have verified the files related to the decision taken by the interview panel that found Ms. Vidya eligible for admission to the PhD programme. Despite meeting after seven months, the panel did not take a decision on whether to send notices to the former SFI leader, the members of the interview panel and the complainant asking them to submit their statements. It is likely to meet again before the announcement of the Lok Sabha election, according to sources.
The SC/ST cell of the varsity, which had probed complaints of violation of norms in the admission, had found that reservation policies were violated for admitting Ms. Vidya.
The authorities had informed the Kerala High Court in the first week of July 2023 that she was admitted to the PhD programme as per the norms. The statement was given in response to a petition filed by a candidate alleging violation of norms in the admission process.
