One university post, two PK Mishras, and a court case in Uttarakhand

Wondering why he had not gotten the order all these years, he approached the vice chancellor of the university and was told that the matter would be looked into. When he didn’t hear from university authorities in subsequent months, he filed an RTI.

He also found a corrigendum issued by the university on March 3, 2005, which “corrected” the name in the selection list from Pawan Kumar Mishra to Pramod Kumar Mishra.

Not satisfied with the explanation of the university’s actions, Pawan Mishra approached the Uttarakhand High Court, which on April 15 this year directed Kumaun University to produce all documents on the matter on the next date of hearing – April 30.

Pawan Mishra has been living in Delhi for the past 25 years and currently teaches Physics to IIT aspirants at a coaching centre at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad. He is a native of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and has a Master’s in Physics from Lucknow University. He has qualified CSIR-UGC NET, making him eligible for the lecturer’s post.

Recalling his interview, Pawan Mishra told The Indian Express, “I was qualified for the job. I had been a teacher at UP Sainik School in Lucknow before that and an expert in the field. My interview went on for 15 minutes and I was confident that it would come through. However, I didn’t get a call back. It was my oversight that I didn’t go back to check it in person.” Of 110 applications, 58 appeared for the interview, including both P K Mishras.

Pramod Mishra told The Indian Express that he would not comment on the matter as it is sub judice.

The petition filed by Pawan Mishra seeks his appointment with retrospective effect and for the termination of Pramod Mishra from the post. “The joining letters for all four selected candidates were issued on February 28, 2005 by Kumaun University, Nainital, which included the petitioner’s name… the other three selected candidates, being locals of Nainital, Haldwani, and Almora, submitted their ‘prabhar praman patra’ (joining declaration certificate) on February 28, 2005, itself… The petitioner, being a resident of a distant location… was never informed by postal or any other means regarding his selection result and appointment,” the petition said.

The petition also alleged that the corrigendum issued on March 3, 2005 falsely cited a typing error to replace the petitioner’s name with that of Pramod Kumar Mishra in the selection list.

The matter “smacks of malafide and fishy modus operandi of securing an appointment”, the petition alleged.

The petition also said that an RTI was filed this January regarding the legal validity of the corrigendum letter that changed the name in the selection list, and that the response said the corrigendum was never presented to the Executive Council for approval.

“It was also revealed from the RTI response letter dated 25th January, 2025 that no other authority except the Executive Council was competent to appoint a lecturer in the university, further invalidating the fraudulent corrigendum,” the petition said.

The petition also accused a professor in the Botany Department, who is Pramod Mishra’s father-in-law, of manipulating and influencing the selection result.

Kumaun University Registrar Mangal Singh said the university would provide all documents in the matter to the court. “We are not aware of this incident. Pawan Mishra had sought several documents under RTI and we provided all of them. He wrote to us as well. While we were investigating it, he approached the court. We will coordinate and move forward in the case,” Singh said.