The University of Calicut is going ahead with its move to terminate G. Radhakrishna Pillai, Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, from service, over a complaint related to his foreign citizenship.
The Syndicate approved a proposal moved by of one of its sub-committees for the purpose, at its meeting on Tuesday. K.T. Shamshad Hussain, M. Manoharan, and K.P. Vinod Kumar were the panel members.
An internal inquiry report submitted by the Syndicate sub-committee said, “Mr. Pillai has deliberately and fraudulently misled the university and the Syndicate as he had renounced the Indian citizenship on May 31, 2008, and voluntarily acquired the nationality as a British citizen and OCI [Overseas Citizen of India] status without the permission of the university and the government.”
Going by the statutory provisions and the Citizenship Act, only a citizen of India can be appointed in the university. The action on the part of Mr. Pillai was cited as a grave dereliction of duty and violation of Service Conduct Rules and other laws related to citizenship. The university had suspended Mr. Pillai from service last year. Though a Single Bench of the Kerala High Court stayed the order, it was later lifted by a Division Bench.
Mr. Pillai was unavailable for comments.
Talks with Lakshadweep administration
The standing committee on exams will hold talks with the Lakshadweep administration to help students whose academic prospects were affected by the latter’s decision to snap ties with the university. The authorities will hold a hearing to record the statements of teachers who did not participate in the centralised evaluation camp for journalism answer scripts of second semester undergraduate courses. The university will not renew the affiliation of colleges if the teachers there refuse to participate in the evaluation of answer scripts for fifth semester undergraduate courses that is scheduled to begin on May 16.
The university is planning to tie up with industrial institutions to ensure jobs for its graduates. The Syndicate approved a draft of the ‘industrial linkage’ scheme devised for the purpose. The university is also enforcing a consultancy policy for its teachers. The policy envisages 70% of the consultancy fee for the teachers and the rest for the university.
The Syndicate approved a memorandum of understanding with the Mumbai-based Homi Bhabha National Institute for cooperation in research work.
