As college withholds teacher’s certificates, faculty appeals to DoTE, AICTE

College official claims faculty owes money to the institution

An assistant professor in a self-financing engineering college in Tiruppur has been struggling for the past six months to get his educational certificates from the college.

Despite repeated appeals when the college did not return the certificates, C. Ramkumar approached the police.

Mr. Ramkumar is an alumnus of Sasurie College of Engineering in Vijayamangalam, Tiruppur. He has completed ME in computer science and engineering from the college and was working there till 2016. “The college had terminated 50 people like me citing poor enrolment. However, later in 2022, we were taken back,” Mr. Ramkumar said.

He was getting paid ₹24,000 as salary. He said he was also involved in the admission process. He resigned on July 31, 2023, and served notice period till September 18. He said he had to tend to his ailing father, and hence could not work at the college, the FIR states.

Since the college authorities did not return his certificates, he approached the police and later the district administration. “The police issued three summons after which the college returned two certificates but not my SSLC and HSC, BCA and ME (CSE) certificates,” Mr. Ramkumar said. He has petitioned the Chief Minister’s Special Cell, Anna University, Directorate of Technical Education and All India Council for Technical Education.  

On March 20, the commissioner for technical education wrote to the Director for Centre for Affiliation of Anna University to act on the complaint. On January 18, Narendra Singh, AICTE’s Deputy Director of Public Grievance Redressal Cell, in a letter to the college’s Director pointed out that “withholding/retaining original educational qualification certificates of faculty/non-teaching staff members is not permissible and such illegal and unethical restrictive practices are clear violation of AICTE norms.” 

“Without my certificates I cannot apply for a job anywhere. I hope I will get them back soon,” Mr. Ramkumar said.  

College’s response

College principal M. Vijayakumar said that he was not aware of the details of certificates Mr. Ramkumar had submitted to the institution. “He has not given a proper resignation letter. He was using the college’s CUG phone and has joined another college without a proper relieving order,” the principal said and claimed that Mr. Ramkumar had not returned money which he had borrowed from the college.

Mr. Vijayakumar said that the police filed an FIR against the college administrative officer and him based on Mr. Ramkumar’s complaint. “He did his master’s degree under me. I joined a month after he joined this college in August 2022. He left without giving any intimation,” he said.

Though it is a norm that faculty may resign only at the end of a semester, in case of an emergency, the faculty may be relieved before the end of a semester too, he explained. “He did not have any such emergency. I also learnt that he had joined another college. Given that CSE is in demand faculty will get recruited when there is a vacancy,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.

The principal further said that the college had surrendered Mr. Ramkumar’s UG and PG certificates but maintained that the faculty had not submitted any other documents.