P RAMAMOORTHI DR Vs. MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE above writ petition has been filed against the proceedings of the first respondent in Memo No. Estt/T/1/92, dated 12 January 1993, by which the petitioner was demoted to the lowest cadre in the lowest post that is Lecturer from the post of Reader and by which the petitioner was debarred from guiding Ph.D. research scholars.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is briefly stated hereunder. THE petitioner was selected and appointed by the first respondent in 1976 Lecturer in Madurai Kamaraj University English Department. In 1984 he was conferred with Doctorate in English by the first respondent University and in 1985 he was promoted as Reader in the Department of English.

(3.) SO he contagted. W. B. Throne through a letter, dated 9 December, 1991, and asked whether he had published the article "The Cycle of Sin in Shakespeare's Late Plays" under a pseudonym in Aligarh Journal of English Studies. W. B. Throne by his letter, dated 17 December, 1991, denied publishing the article under a pseudonym and maintained that the petitioner had stolen his article and had it published in "Aligarh Journal of English Studies" in 1987. Thereafter, Dr. James L. Hamer contacted Dr. Agrawala, Secretary of Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, who in turn contacted the Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University by a letter, dated 30 October 1992 to take appropriate action against the petitioner. Then a Syndicate Sub-Committee was constituted on 13 November, 1992, as per rule 25(a) relating to powers of Syndicate. It is further stated that the Sub-Committee members on a comparison of aforesaid two articles (original by W. B. Thorne) and the other published by the petitioner, framed charges, which was communicated to the petitioner with questionnaire form on 25 November 1992. The petitioner wanted a copy of the article of Sri W. B. Thorne to enable him to submit his explanation as per his letter, dated 27 November, 1992. The petitioner had also admitted that he had committed plagiarism and had stated that he owns responsibility and expressed regret. Even before the Syndicate Sub-Committee, at the time of enquiry held on 17 December 1992, he had admitted all the charges, and also given a signed statement. Subsequently, on 28 December, 1992, the Syndicate of the Madurai Kamaraj University approved the Minutes of the Syndicate Sub-Committee and decided to demote the petitioner to the lowest cadre in the lowest scale and debarred him from guiding research scholars. The said decision of the Syndicate was communicated to the petitioner by a letter, dated 12 January 1993, and the petitioner has challenged the said order, dated 12 January 1993, in this writ petition.The second respondent, namely, Sri Kuthalingam, Vice-Chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University, has also filed a separate counter-affidavit denying all the averments made by the petitioner in so far as against him.