Students claim law degrees being sold in MP institute
BHOPAL: THE ANOMALIES CAME TO LIGHT AFTER SOME STUDENTS COMPLAINED THAT 12 OTHERS WERE GIVEN DEGREES EVEN AFTER THEY FAILED TO CLEAR SEVERAL PAPERS
A premier university of MadhyaPradeshhasorderedan inquiryfollowingallegationsthat lawdegreesweresoldattheinstitute for lakhsofrupeesinwhatis viewedasanotherscamtohitthe state’s education sector.
The National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal also suspendeditsassistant registrar (examination) Ranjeet Singh afterathree-membercommittee oftheinstitutefoundhimguiltyof failingtoproducerecordsofthose studentswhohaveallegedlyprocured fake degrees by paying money.
The anomalies came to the light after a group of students in Aprilcomplainedtothechiefjustice of the Madhya Pradesh high courtthat12studentsweregiven degrees during 2010 to 2015 even after they failed to clear several papers of BA LLB. Some of these students allegedly even got jobs on the basis of the purchased degrees.
Incidentally, the University Grants Commission (UGC) last yeardirected universities to verify the certificates of practicing advocates in the wake of largescale complaints of fake law degrees.Onesuchcomplaint led totheousterofDelhilawminister Jitender Singh Tomar from the AAPgovernmentafterhisarrest in June 2015.
The NLIU formed the threemember committee to look into the allegations onthebasisofthe complaints from the students.
“There is no record of these students, whether they have passed or failed, and it was Ranjeet Singh’s responsibility to see that examination records were kept in order,” a professor of the institute said.
To further probe Singh’s role intheentireepisode,theinstitute has now formed a one-member committee headed by justice (retired) Abhay Gohil.
Talking to HT Justice Abhay Gohilsaid,“Iamjustprobingthe role of the assistant registrar. I amnotprobingthewholematter. My inquiry is also on the initial stage so I would not be able to comment on it.”
The institute’s decision to probe only Singh’s role in the scam, however, raised afeweyebrows. It’s a major scam and more people were involved in it but to save them, a “piecemeal inquiry” by retired Justice Abhay Gohil has been ordered, saidafacultymemberrequesting anonymity. The institute’s director S S Singh, however, ruled out any major irregularities.“Onthebasisofcomplaintof some students, we formed a three-member committee. The committee found anomalies in degrees given to some students, and found the role of assistant registrar Ranjeet singh suspicious,” Singh said.