Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University has put on hold appointment letters of 27 teachers, who were recruited last year, after the appointment process came under question following accusations of irregularities. The university which initially was defending the appointment process took a U-turn after department of higher education told court that all was not well with the recruitments.
The recruitment of these 27 faculties to the university was undertaken during the tenure of Vice-Chancellor Tariq Zafar. The then registrar MK Tiwari in a report to higher education department had alleged many anomalies in the recruitment process. In the report, Tiwari had stated that he was not involved in recruitment process which is violation of rules. He alleged that call letters to the new appointees were issued in his name without his approval and knowledge. The letters carried his scanned signature on it, he had claimed. Pointing out at irregularities, the registrar has alleged that during the process reservation roaster was not followed. API score cards of the selected candidates, copies of their research papers are also not there at VC office, Tiwari mentioned in his report.
Going against the University Grants Commissions rules, the varsity allegedly also tweaked the norms of summary of scores with more weightage to interview. Even the procedure didn’t provided reservation to women and disabled candidates, says his report.
It further alleged that many appointments were done with eligibility criteria favouring a few candidates in the departments for which no eligibility criteria have been specified by UGC. Besides, when the managing board opened the envelopes containing names of selected candidates, it did not disclose the posts and departments of the teachers, which too adds to the suspicion, the report had said.
A coordinator in CEDMAP Dr Honey Mevati, who was involved in planning the recruitment process and Dr Kamlesh Barona who was engaged in selection procedure are among the 27 selected candidates, said a source in varsity on condition of anonymity.
In its reply to case filed by 20 candidates, varsity claimed that all the procedures and norms were followed during the recruitment process. On the contrary, the reply of department of higher education in the court was based on the report of the former registrar Tiwari.
Meanwhile, Bhoj University sitting registrar Sarita Chauhan also informed that the varsity has now changed its response in a case in Indore Bench of High Court and has gone by the report of former registrar. She added that the varsity will take steps to complete the recruitment process complying with all the set norms.
