SIT Probe Names 2 Vice-Chancellors In UP's Fake Degree Scam

Two current vice-chancellors, one serving at a central university and the other at a state university, are named in a probe of a special investigation team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh, The Indian Express reported. The team was investigating the issuance of fake degrees by the Varanasi-based Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya.

Prof Rajneesh Kumar Shukla and Prof Gangadhar Panda have been named in the SIT probe "for dereliction of duty." Both of them have separately served as registrars at the Vishwavidyalaya, which works under the UP government. Currently, Prof Shukla is the VC of the central government-run Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra since April 2019, and Prof Gangadhar Panda, of the Jharkhand government’s Kolhan University in Chaibasa, Jharkhand since May 2020.

The appointment of a vice-chancellor at a central university goes through a number of stages. First, a selection committee comprising eminent persons shortlists candidates and submits a list of 3-5 names to the Ministry of Education. The ministry then verifies the details and scrutinize the names based on eligibility requirement and forward those names to the visitor (President of India) of the university for final approval of the appointment of one person out of those names.

At the state level, state counterparts perform the same functions and governor of the state appoints the VC.

Shukla, a professor of comparative philosophy and religion, has been member secretary of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR). He is also a member of the recently constituted search-cum-selection committee to pick 18 non-ex officio members of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

The SIT is looking into irregularities at the Vishwavidyalaya during the period from 2004 to 2014. The SIT, after examining 5,797 degrees, found 1,086 degrees issued by Sampurnanand Sanskrit University to be fake. It was estimated that candidates getting such fake degrees got employed as teachers across 69 districts of UP.

 In its November 2020 report, the SIT said there were “lapses/dereliction of duty at the end of registrars, exam controllers, system managers of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University between 2004-2014”.

"They did not perform their duties in a proper manner, as a result the verification department carried out its work fraudulently and records of the exam department were tampered with at a large scale", the report said. It has also named nine registrars/exam controllers, deputy registrars, and assistant registrars at the university along with Prof Shukla and Panda.

On September 2 this year, the SIT issued a notice to Shukla to record his statement. While talking to The Indian Express, Shukla said, “I have challenged the SIT order. The 2020 report cannot be termed final. The fact is that as registrar, I was the first one to act as the university kept getting complaints from the then state government about the fraud being committed. I submitted my statement in the form of an affidavit to the SIT last month. It was based on my FIR that two functionaries of the university were jailed. The SIT should have recorded my statement before preparing its report.”

Panda said, “The SIT had recorded my statement while the report was being prepared. I had made it clear that the documents used to come to me as a mere formality. In any case, I have not received any communication from the UP government or the university on the report. I am fulfilling my duty as VC (in Jharkhand) with full dedication.”

After the report, the Home Department had directed the Vishwavidyalaya to send details of the current employment status of the named individuals for further action, and asked the university to act against 10 others who were still employed with it. 

However, it was not known whether any action was taken against them. Neither SIT officer Vijay Kumar Singh commented on the statement by Shukla, nor the Ministry of Education replied to the detailed questionnaires, The Indian Express reported.