Court orders registration of FIR against Central University of Haryana professor

Ravinder Saini

Mahendragarh, February 29

The Central University of Haryana (CUH) here is again in the limelight with regard to the appointment of a professor at the Department of Political Science that took place over a year ago.

Case sub judice

The case is sub judice before the high court, which on September 27, 2023, restrained the university from cancelling the petitioner’s appointment pursuant to the notice dated August 28, 2023. I don’t have any knowledge about the local court’s directions about the FIR. — Prof Tankeshwar Kumar, Vice-chancellor, CUH

A Mahendragarh court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Sohan Lal Malik has issued directions to the police to register an FIR against Dr Rajeev Kumar Singh under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC for allegedly using invalid experience certificate dated March 19, 2014.

Dr Rajeev was selected for the post of professor in December 2022. He was earlier working as an assistant professor in the university.

The court has also stated that the police can add any other suspect as per investigation. The directions have been issued while hearing a complaint filed by Dr Pawan Sharma of Karnal, who was also one of the aspirants for the post.

In his complaint, Dr Pawan Sharma said the CUH invited applications for the post of professor in April 2020 through an advertisement and he also applied for the same. On October 4, 2022, he received a call letter for the interview through an email. However, the interview was postponed. It was rescheduled for December 10, 2022, without any intimation to him. Dr Rajeev was then selected for the post, he added.

“My name was intentionally excluded from the list of candidates to be called for the interview with an intention to favour Dr Rajeev who lacks minimum eligibility of 10 years’ experience for the post. Dr Rajeev had only seven and a half years of valid experience, but he managed to get an invalid experience certificate of a guest faculty from the Central University of Jharkhand to fulfil the requirement whereas the experience of assistant professor (guest faculty) cannot be considered for the same,” Sharma alleged.

The complainant had sought registration of a case against Dr Rajeev and members of the selection and scrutiny committee.

Meanwhile, Dr Rajeev denied having any information about the court case by stating that he was not summoned to present his version. “My all documents are valid and I have already filed a suit before the high court in this regard. I am confident that the truth will prevail,” he said.

CUH Vice-Chancellor Prof Tankeshwar Kumar said the university had issued a notice dated August 28, 2023, to Dr Rajeev that his appointment as a professor in the university would be cancelled in case he failed to provide an appropriate certificate within one month, as in the absence of the certificate, the university was not in a position to decide his eligibility for the post.

“The case is sub judice before the high court, which on September 27, 2023, restrained the university from cancelling the petitioner’s appointment pursuant to the notice dated August 28, 2023,” the VC said, adding he did not have any knowledge about the local court’s directions about the FIR.