Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Sep 14: Professor Dr Otem Padung of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) has written to the under-secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), seeking an apology and withdrawal of statement in the next hearing of the High Court, against claims that he and Dr K Rajendra Babu instigated and misled the petitioners (commerce candidates).
In the affidavit submitted to the Itanagar permanent bench of the Gauhati High Court here on 12 September, the under-secretary, on behalf of the APPSC had said, “These professors… instead of instigating and misleading the petitioners candidates, should concentrate in providing good education and discipline in their specialized subject of commerce.”
The APPSC had also said that the certificates provided by the two professors with regard to the claims of out-of-syllabus questions were devoid of merit as they were not in the approved panel maintained by the commission.
Seeking an apology and withdrawal of the statement made in court, Dr Padung, who is the head of the RGU’s commerce department, said in his letter on Friday that “the (APPSC) statement does not have an iota of truth to it.”
Dr Padung informed that he and Dr Babu had verified the commerce questions at their own individual capacity, at the request of the candidates, and pointed them out accordingly.
“It is our moral obligation and responsibility to clarify, correct, verify the doubts of the students,” he said.
He also highlighted that Prof Babu was his teacher, as well, and has been awarded with the best lecturer award in 2007 and a silver medal in 2018 by the government of Arunachal Pradesh for his selfless services towards the students and college community.
Condemning the statement made in court, Dr Padung said, “If the commission has strong confidence on the report of the subject expert (commerce) and considers the mistake detected by us as ‘devoid of merit’ then allow the court to constitute an expert committee of at least two members not below the rank of professor, and let it give the final report.”
While he maintained that he did not doubt the integrity of the expert panel set up by the commission, Dr Padung raised apprehension that the evaluation may have been done in a hurried manner due to which only 49 questions were found to be out-of-syllabus as claimed by the APPSC.
