Allotment of a topic that came under the subject a research scholar also taught at the department is violation of the norms, which Ojha was aware since each researcher was informed about it beforehand.
A PhD scholar has been dismissed from his research programme after it emerged that he played both the examiner and an evaluator for a test he took.
Devesh Ojha, a doctoral student at the civil engineering department of Lucknow’s Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), used his position of both a research scholar and a teacher at the same department to allot himself a topic that was part of the subject he taught.
This enabled him to set question papers for the pre-PhD course exam he took as part of the University Grants Commission norms. As it turned out, Ojha evaluated his own answer sheet and emerged as the topper.
“We found it odd that the evaluator, examinee and the person who prepared the question paper had the same name,” IET director A S Vidyarthi said. “It was shocking to find that one man had actually played all the three roles.”
Allotment of a topic that came under the subject a research scholar also taught at the department is violation of the norms, which Ojha was aware since each researcher was informed about it beforehand.
Vidyarthi said that show cause notice has been issued to the members of the board of studies for appointing Ojha as the examiner for the subject.