Plagiarism to ‘academic fraud’, Pondicherry V-C’s term was mired in controversies

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Among those shunted out was then Registrar, Rajeev Yaduvanshi, who was repatriated to his parent department after he sent a number of reports to HRD Minister Smriti Irani on financial irregularities and statutory violations.

Read | President gives nod for dismissal of Pondicherry University V-C

A case was also filed in the Madras HC on the violations committed by the then UPA regime in her selection.

Documents showed that then HRD Minister Pallam Raju recommended her name in the file forwarded to the President, although the rules state the ministry has to submit a list of three names in alphabetical order.

Then on November 22, 2014, The Indian Express reported that Krishnamurthy had plagiarised a book mentioned in her CV, which listed two other books that had not been published. Over 95 per cent of the book, which was also part of the Mumbai University curriculum, had been copied from papers authored by eminent law scholars, including Padma Shri N R Madhava Menon, founder of National Law School in Bengaluru.

And 24 of Krishnamurthy’s 25 research papers and publications listed in her CV — on legal and constitutional studies — did not exist in the UGC database or online repository for law schools.

Her CV was kept away from RTI provisions for several months, under ‘protected personal information’ category. Later, Yaduvanshi, using his appellate powers on an RTI appeal, made her CV available.

After Yaduvanshi’s repatriation, a group of professors of the Pondicherry University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) used modern character recognition and plagiarism software to expose the “academic fraud” in her 20-page CV. They also found that her D.Litt degree was fake, obtained from a fake Sri Lankan University — a finding that was confirmed by an HRD ministry probe panel later.

On Wednesday, Yaduvanshi, currently principal secretary of education in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said the dismissal was essential to restore the university’s academic integrity. While Krishnamurthy was appointed by the UPA regime, she is reported to have enjoyed influence with the NDA administration too.

“Who will compensate for the time and energy we wasted to expose a corrupt V-C? Who will compensate for the number of academic days and research projects we lost in this four-year-long fight, just because the HRD ministry wanted to protect her? Why were both Pallam Raju and Smriti Irani lenient towards her, despite getting dozens of petitions and official reports on her academic fraud and corruption,” asked a faculty member who was attacked on the campus for joining the protests.

It was only in August 2015 that Krishnamurthy agreed to go on leave, on the suggestion of the HRD ministry.

Welcoming the President’s decision on Wednesday, Dastagiri Reddy, general secretary of the Pondicherry University Teachers’ Association (PUTA), demanded that Krishnamurthy’s salary be recovered and charges levied on the perks she enjoyed during her tenure as V-C.