IIT Kanpur professor accused of plagiarism can retain PhD, board shuts case

KANPUR: The board of governors (BoG) of IIT-Kanpur has decided not to revoke the doctorate degree of Assistant Professor Subrahmanyam Saderla, who was accused of plagiarism while writing his thesis. The decision to shut the case followed a report by the external expert committee, which was set by the BoG in April to make recommendations and finalise a report.
The Board of Governors, which held a brainstorming session in Noida on Saturday, was chaired by Dr S Radhakrishnan, former ISRO chairman and current chairman of BoG. IITKanpur director Prof Abhay Karandikar was also present. While shutting the case, the BoG decided that a corrigendum will be appended to the thesis by Prof Saderla, identifying text that’s common knowledge and identical to earlier theses used by him.
Earlier, Saderla, who joined the department of aerospace engineering at IIT-Kanpur in January 2018, had accused four senior colleagues of harassing him for being a Dalit. IIT-Kanpur through a press statement said, “The Board in its 231st meeting held on Saturday (September 14, 2019) at Noida accepted the report of the external expert committee constituted to examine the plagiarism case of Subrahmanyam Saderla.
The Board decided that PhD degree awarded to Saderla will not be revoked.” The statement further said an appropriate advisory will be issued to Dr Saderla and his thesis supervisor by the director. “After implementation of these instructions, the Board of Governors and IIT-Kanpur's Senate shall be informed,” the statement said.
In October 2018, an anonymous email was sent to IIT-Kanpur authorities, alleging that assistant professor Saderla had indulged in plagiarism to write his thesis. The matter was then referred to the institute's Academic Ethics Cell (AEC) for a thorough probe.
But ethics cell did not find conclusive evidence and plagiarism charges were not slapped on the professor. It was only in introductory pages of the thesis, some common knowledge and matter available in public domain was used that did not have attributions or references. AEC suggested Saderla should rewrite portions of his thesis in his own words. But, IIT-Kanpur’s Senate disagreed with AEC and a meeting was held on March 14.