The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition accusing a JNU associate professor of plagiarism, noting that the charge was not established.
An HC Bench gave the decision after taking note of the minutes of a multi-member committee meeting, which was constituted following the court’s order, to verify the allegations. “Looking to the minutes of the meeting of the five-member committee, which was constituted as per our order dated August 13, 2018, the charge of plagiarism in the thesis given by respondent no.3 [S.K. Ishtiaque Ahmed] is held as not established,” the court said in its order.
The petition had alleged that Mr. Ahmed, currently working as an associate professor in the Centre for Persian and Central Asian Studies at JNU, had obtained his Ph.D. degree in Persian in 2000 through plagiarism. The High Court also took note of the fact that the petition was initiated 18 years after Mr. Ahmed completed his Ph.D degree.
The petition alleged that he had plagiarised works of several authors in his Ph.D thesis as well as in a book on Iranian politics. The Ph.D thesis was on the topic ‘Iranian Politics Intellectuals & Ulama’.
The Bench said after looking through the minutes of the meeting of the committee, which was constituted to verify the allegations, “we see no reason to entertain this writ petition”.
Regarding the submission of the counsel for petitioner Nadeem Akhtar, a Ph.D research scholar in the same department of the varsity, that there was an earlier report which was against the professor, the High Court said this cannot be a ground for entertaining a petition and that too, as a public interest litigation.
