Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Centre, University Grants Commission, Osmania University and Kakatiya university over a PIL petition seeking action against university officials responsible for granting research fellowships to ineligible students.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy directed them to file counter affidavits on the matter.
The CBI, which was made one of the respondents, was also given notice.
A student K. Srinivas, who filed the plea, requested the HC to order for an investigation by the CBI into the allegations that students who did not register with the universities for the programmes of M.Phil and Ph.D. were given fellowships.
He sought action against the officials of OU and KU responsible for awarding fellowships to students who did not comply with the mandatory registration procedure. He requested the court to instruct the officials of the two universities to scrutinise the fellowships awarded to such unregistered students.
Mr. Srinivas, who wanted to pursue Ph.D programme in History, contended that UGC guidelines categorically state that only those candidates (belonging to OBC/Minority/SC/ST) who had already registered for M.Phil/Ph.D are eligible for fellowship. The universities were required to issue notification inviting applications for awarding fellowships.
Fellowship amount
These fellowships are awarded in Science, Humanities, Social Science, Engineering and Technology. Amounts of ₹25,000 and ₹28,000 are awarded monthly for Junior Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow respectively.
Mr. Srinivas said that he had secured information under the RTI Act from the Dean of Faculty of Sciences of Osmania University about the fellowships. It was found that many of the students who got fellowships did not have admissions in M.Phil or Ph.D when they were awarded fellowships.
On June 1, 2016, some students represented to the Union Ministry of Human Resources to conduct an inquiry into awarding fellowships to ineligible candidates in OU. Another representation was made to OU Vice-Chancellor on the matter. However, no action was taken, the petitioner maintained.
On this January 7, one of the Ph.D aspirants sent a petition to the UGC explaining the irregularities in awarding fellowships in OU and KU and how genuine students were being deprived of an opportunity to conduct research works, the petitioner said.
The PIL plea was posted after four weeks for next hearing.
