Plagiarism by professor cannot be tolerated, can invite criminal action, says Delhi High Court
A plea was filed by a JNU scholar alleging that a professor of the varsity had plagiarised from 15 different sources in his thesis.
The Delhi High Court on Friday said that plagiarism by a professor cannot be tolerated and anyone indulging in such practice will face criminal action, The Indian Express reported.
The Delhi High Court was hearing a plea filed by Jawaharlal Nehru University Scholar Nadeem Akhtar who accused a professor at the varsity, SK Ishtiaque Ahmed, of plagiarism. The plea sought to quash Ahmed’s PhD degree, and his appointment as assistant and associate professor.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked JNU to file a status report in the matter after conducting inquiry. It asked the varsity to initiate criminal action if the allegations were found to be true. The matter has been listen for further hearing on August 10.
“Plagiarism by a professor cannot be tolerated in any manner. He has to be shown the door,” the bench said.
The petitioner alleged that Ahmed had submitted his thesis on Political Radicalism in Pre-Islamic Revolutionary Persian Literature of Iran in July 2000, and that most of the thesis was lifted verbatim from 15 different sources, The Indian Express reported. According to the plea, Ahmed wrote a book Iranian Politics: Intellectuals and Ulama, which was also plagiarised.
The petitioner alleged that he had brought these incidents of plagiarism to the attention of JNU, but no action was taken. It sought direction to prohibit the Ahmed from supervising and guiding any MPhil or PhD student in the university and that the university must cease his duties till the outcome of the petition.
