KOTTAYAM: Even as complaints galore over political intervention in university affairs under the LDF government, a complaint has been lodged with the chancellor of universities, Governor Arif Muhammed Khan, urging his intervention to investigate the move to appoint a CPM sympathiser as the registrar of the Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) in Kottayam.
According to the complaint filed by George Varghese, a former syndicate member of MG University, the varsity authorities have unlawfully revised the norms for the appointment of registrar to suit the candidature of Biju Thomas, who is currently a CPM nominee in the syndicate.
Varghese further claimed that Thomas lacks the necessary qualifications for the role, and yet the university authorities have issued a revised notification that conveniently omitted the upper age limit for applicants, thereby providing an advantage to Thomas.
According to the complainant, Thomas has a questionable career history and allegedly obtained the professorship and later became the principal of Baselius College, Kottayam, through illegal means.
“Thomas, a physical education teacher, deceitfully claimed points in his application for professorship under the career advance scheme of the UGC. It is worth noting that the college he comes from does not offer any research programmes in Physical Education. Additionally, none of his publications were published in UGC CARE listed journals. Despite this, the selection committee, under Thomas’ influence, overlooked these discrepancies,” Varghese pointed out.
He also highlighted Thomas’ promotion to professor in Physical Education, which was approved by a syndicate sub-committee on ‘Approval and Affiliation’, where Thomas himself was a member and attended the meeting.
“This raises concerns about the fairness of the process. Subsequently, Thomas managed to secure the position of principal at Baselius College after allegedly influencing the selection committee to disregard the UGC Regulations of 2018 criteria for the role, including a minimum research score of 110 and the publication of a minimum number of 10 research articles in UGC CARE listed journals,” he added.
In his letter, Varghese requested a probe into the actions of the MGU syndicate regarding the promotion of Biju Thomas to professor and his subsequent appointment as principal. He also urged for the examination of records related to the notification for the appointment of the university registrar. Despite repeated attempts, Biju Thomas was not available for response.