The Supreme Court has refused to cancel the appointment of an Assistant Professor even as serious questions have emerged over the authenticity of the PhD degree relied upon by him.
The reason: a PhD was not an essential qualification for the post.
However, the Court has directed Maharshi Dayanand University to conduct a fresh inquiry into the disputed doctoral degree, saying the material placed before it could not simply be ignored.
The case concerned the appointment of an Assistant Professor of Physical Education at Sat Jinda Kalyana College in Rohtak, which is affiliated with Maharshi Dayanand University.
Several unsuccessful candidates challenged the appointment, raising doubts about the PhD degree allegedly awarded to the selected candidate by Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.
The challenge had earlier failed before both the Single Bench and Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court had also questioned the standing of the petitioners, noting that their names did not feature in the merit list.
When the matter reached the Supreme Court, the Bench examined the eligibility rules governing the appointment and found that the selected candidate had independently fulfilled the mandatory qualification by clearing the UGC-NET examination.
Under the applicable UGC regulations, NET, SLET or SET qualification was generally mandatory for appointment. A valid PhD could provide an exemption from that requirement under specified regulations.
In this case, however, the Court found that a PhD was only a desirable qualification and not an indispensable one for the post. Since the selected candidate had qualified UGC-NET, the Court held that he could not be considered ineligible merely because his PhD was under a cloud.
The Court nevertheless noted that the disputed PhD may have helped him secure additional marks and gain an advantage over other candidates in the merit list.
It observed that the situation could have been different had the candidates placed immediately below him in the merit list challenged his appointment.
The doubts surrounding the degree, meanwhile, were far from insignificant.
Information obtained from Bundelkhand University indicated that the candidate had never attended a PhD course there. The university also reportedly stated that no PhD programme had been conducted during the period in which he claimed to have earned the degree.
Documents placed before the Court included an affidavit from university authorities describing the degree as fake, while another purported university document was said to have been forged.
Faced with these disclosures, the Supreme Court said it could not turn a blind eye to the material that had surfaced.
Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Court ordered Maharshi Dayanand University to undertake a fresh examination of the PhD degree.
The university has been directed to verify the degree in light of the information provided by Bundelkhand University and determine whether the candidate had misled authorities by presenting himself as a PhD holder.
The Supreme Court made it clear that while the appointment cannot presently be disturbed solely because the PhD was not a mandatory qualification, the allegations surrounding the degree require a thorough and independent inquiry.
If the investigation establishes that the degree was obtained or used through deception, the matter will have to be dealt with accordingly.
