Jakhar orders probe against V-C

Gaharwar was appointed Vice-Chancellor in February 21, 2005, but faced several protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad much before his appointment. The last protest by the students8217; body was during a function presided over by Jakhar last week. Gaharwar was by his side when the activists raised slogans demanding his removal and caused a ruckus after challenging the security of the Governor.

Troubled by the unruly protest that led to suspension of a police officer and show-cause notice against two police officials, and the series of complaints in the last two years, Jakhar finally ordered an inquiry against Singh, who is considered close to senior Congress leaders.

Despite repeated attempts, Gaharwar was not available for comment.

Gaharwar was first appointed as assistant registrar of the Barkatullah University in 1985. He completed his PhD way back in 1987 under his guide S P Norton, who was then teaching in M V M College. He was accused of copying large portions from his guide8217;s thesis in Zoology. Chapters 2 and 3 Page 7 to 35 in his thesis were nearly verbatim copy of chapters 2 and 3 of his guide8217;s thesis submitted in 1975.

Though the thesis titled 8220;The effect of the latex of opuntia coecinelifera on the fertility of female albino rat with special reference to uterine mast cells8221; was submitted in 1987, the matter surfaced in 2000 when he had become the registrar of the same university.

Then Vice-Chancellor Harshavardhan Tiwari took up the matter with then Governor Bhai Mahavir. The correspondence between them led to institution of an inquiry by a panel of three experts from University of Madras. The panel had found that despite reproducing descriptions from the earlier thesis, Gaharwar had not given any reference.

The Governor suggested that it was within the powers of the university to take action against the Registrar but before any decision could be taken the Vice-Chancellor was removed.

Madras University experts were asked to give a fresh opinion by the new Vice-Chancellor. The new report said the plagiarism was mainly in the sections on the review of literature and the first section. The new report said, 8220;Apparently, the copying of the thesis of Dr Norton has been made with his approval or instigation.8221;

The report recommended that Gaharwar be asked to re-submit his thesis after removing the copied portion and rewriting it, taking into account the literature available till date, under a new supervisor. It said the guide be punished by not allowing him to guide any PhD student for three years.

However, before the university8217;s executive council could remove Gaharwar he moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which granted him stay till further hearing. Later he was named Vice-Chancellor of MPBOU again amid protests by ABVP and his other detractrors.