The Syndicate sub-committee of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit probing the allegations that norms were violated to admit K. Vidya, former leader of the Students Federation of India (SFI), secure admission into the PhD programme in 2020 has decided to collect her statement.
The panel will ask the varsity officials concerned to send notice to her to appear before it to submit her statement.
The move comes seven months after the authorities entrusted the Syndicate sub-committee on legal affairs to verify the admission documents and ascertain whether her admission into the PhD programme in Malayalam was done as per the norms.
The allegations had emerged shortly after she was accused of having submitted a fake teacher experience certificate of having worked as guest faculty member in the Department of Malayalam at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam to gain appointment as guest lecturer at the R.G.M. Government Arts and Science College in Attapady.
Bichu X. Malayil, her research guide, had informed the authorities that she would not associate with Ms. Vidya until she proved her innocence in the wake of the controversy.
Going slow on probe
The Syndicate panel had received flak for going slow on its probe after it was set up on June 9, 2023. The four-member panel had held only two sittings till now and verified a few documents related to the admission into the PhD programme in 2020.
The SC/ST cell of the varsity, which had probed complaints of violation of norms in the admission for PhD programme, had found that reservation policies were violated for admitting Ms. Vidya to the PhD programme.
Interestingly, the authorities had informed the Kerala High Court in the first week of July 2023 that she was admitted into the PhD programme as per the norms. The statement was given in response to a petition filed by a candidate alleging violation of norms in the admission process.
