9 years on, KU fails to act against Prof

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, September 21

Kurukshetra University has failed to initiate action in a case of alleged plagiarism against an associate professor of the commerce department even after nine years.

Two inquiry panels have indicted Dr Virender S Poonia for stealing a research paper from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. The matter is being dragged in the executive committee (EC), highest decision making body of KU, on various pretexts.

Convinced by the official findings, the EC asked Poonia to retire compulsorily for his alleged academic misconduct.

At its meeting on June 24, 2014, the EC had accepted an inquiry report and observed Poonia’s conduct of non-submission of reply to the charge sheet issued to him on April 25, 2014.

A one-man panel of Dr RK Behl in 2007 held Poonia guilty of fraudulently getting an article published in his name and two others in the prestigious Indian Journal of Industrial Relations (IJIR).

An article on ‘Dimensions of Strike: A Study of Textile Workers of Punjab’ has been published in the names of Dr VS Poonia, a lecturer of a private college in Panipat, and Om Prakash, then a GNDU research scholar.

However, Prof Amarjit S Sidhu, a senior faculty member from GNDU’s University Business School, complained to the IJIR in 2007 of plagiarism by Poonia. He brought to the notice of the IJIR publishers and KU that the article was originally a research paper published jointly by Dr Sidhu himself, his PhD student Dr Jyoti and GNDU research scholar Om Prakash.

Poonia had reportedly claimed before the Behl panel that the disputed paper was “our (Poonia and two others) original work” and charged Sidhu of stealing the study material after it was published in July 2006.

Another committee comprising the KU Deans of academic affairs, research and development, commerce and management in 2013 endorsed Behl committee’s findings. It also concluded that Poonia had been adopting delaying tactics by evading appearing before the panel.

Meanwhile, Sidhu told The Tribune today that he had been waiting for justice for almost a decade. He said Om Prakash had provided the paper to Poonia for publication in a journal under names of original authors. “The fact-finding committee was convinced by our original papers published in 2004. But it is unfortunate that no decision has taken against the erring teacher, who has successfully used various tactics to evade action,” said Sidhu.

KC Sharma, VC, said the EC passed a resolution on August 28 that a final opportunity would be given to Poonia to explain.