Delhi High Court has sought responses of the Centre, CVC and IIT Kharagpur on a plea by one its professors who had highlighted discrepancies in the Joint Entrance Examination system, that the institute be directed to accept his resignation as he has been offered a teaching position at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva issued notice to the Centre, Central Vigilance Commission and the institute, seeking their replies by February 7 on the application of professor Rajeev Kumar, who also claims to be a whistleblower and RTI activist.
The application was filed by Kumar, who has been praised by Supreme Court for improving the Joint Entrance Examination system, in his 2012 petition in which he had alleged inaction by the government in protecting him from victimisation as per the Whistleblower Gazette Resolution 2004.
He has claimed that IIT Kharagpur did not accept his resignation as his petition was still pending in court which had on March 21, 2013 put on hold the institute’s decision to impose a penalty of compulsory retirement on him.
In the application filed through advocate Pranav Sachdeva, Kumar has said he had moved a plea before the President of India, who is the Visitor of IIT Kharagpur, claiming that the disciplinary inquiry against him was biased.
The petition is pending before the President.
Kumar has alleged in his plea that he had sought a teaching position in JNU to prevent “continued victimisation”.
“This petitioner has been repeatedly victimised by IIT officials’ arbitrary, unreasonable and vindictive decisions.
First, IIT made the petitioner academically dysfunctional for almost two years. Then, IIT crippled the petitioner in most of his professional tasks by conducting disciplinary proceedings by complete denial of natural justice,” he alleged.
He has said that IIT had given him a no-objection certificate to take up teaching with JNU on lien for a period of two years from June 2015, on his giving an undertaking that he would resign from IIT if he gets outside employment before expiry of the lien period.
His application also claims that he was relieved by IIT on June 11, 2015 and therefore, acceptance of his resignation was only a technical formality.
It also claims that JNU by a letter of May 2016 had confirmed his employment in the varsity’s School of Computer and Systems Sciences.
( Source – PTI )
