The Syndicate sub-committee on legal affairs at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit has started its probe into allegations that norms were violated in the admission to the PhD programme offered by the Department of Malayalam at the varsity in 2020.
The inquiry was ordered by the Vice-Chancellor following allegations that reservation and admission norms were tweaked to help K. Vidya, former leader of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), secure admission to the PhD programme. The five-member committee has asked the varsity authorities to submit all documents related to the admission process.
The varsity had invited applications for 10 seats for the PhD programme through a notification issued on October 1, 2019. A shortlist of 45 candidates, including 25 who had cleared the entrance exam, was published on November 15, 2019. A meeting of the research committee held on December 16, 2019 selected 10 candidates and allocated their respective guides. The committee had also decided to request the university to consider and approve five additional candidates.
It was alleged that the decision to increase the intake was taken to accommodate the accused in the fake teacher experience certificate row. A report by the SC/ST cell of the varsity, which inquired into allegations of violation of reservation norms in the selection of the accused, had pointed out that there were disparities in decisions taken by the research committee and the letter provided by the head of the department to the university seeking its permission for an increase in the number of seats. The cell also found that reservation norms were violated while granting admission to Vidya, who had figured 15th in the selection list.
The sub-committee will look into these allegations after verification of all communications and decisions taken at the department and university administration levels.
