Court seeks Nauni University's reply on unchecked answersheets

Shimla, May 21 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Solan to file a reply on awarding degrees to students without evaluating their answersheets.

The court asked the Nauni University authorities to file their reply on a petition filed by a Solan-based advocate who referred to a report in an English daily said degrees had been conferred upon students without evaluating their answersheets.

The petition stated instead of taking strict action against the concerned officials, the university authorities closed the case after recording warnings in the annual confidential reports (ACR) of the officials following a probe by the University's Vice-Chancellor.

Seeking an independent probe into the matter, it urged the court to direct the university to disclose the names of the students whose answersheets were not evaluated.

Besides, such a callous attitude on part of the university authorities had brought disrepute to the institution, it said.

The university's Vice Chancellor had constituted a three-member probe committee headed by the then Dean College of Horticulture, Dr U.K. Kohli to probe into the complaints about awarding marks to three students of post-harvest department, allegedly without evaluating their answersheets in 2005 following a report in a newspaper.

The probe committee after taking all the unchecked answersheets from the PHT Department into its possession found the teachers concerned had allegedly awarded marks to students without checking their answersheets.

The committee, after establishing alleged irregularities, had submitted the report to higher authorities for further action.

However, the students were promoted to the next semester despite the probe committee reportedly indicting the alleged negligence of the Head of the Department and some other faculty members and recommending re-checking of the answersheets before promoting the students to the next semester.

UNI