Editor,
I would like to report a very important matter related to the National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh (NITAP) and the National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NITRKL), Odisha.
The NITAP and the NITRKL are institutes of national importance, as per the NITs Act, 2007 of the government of India. They are next to IITs and, in fact, many NITs are ranked higher than IITs.
The NITRKL is one of the top NITs of the country. It is a newly established NIT. NITs are autonomous institutes and are governed by the NITs Act and statutes. The board of governors (BoG) of each NIT is the highest decision-making body with regard to administration and discipline. The senate is the highest decision-making body with regard to academics.
I would like to report a very illegal and unethical decision of the senates of the NITAP and the NITRKL. The chairperson of the NITAP senate was Prof Pinakeswar Mahanta, who is presently the director of NIT Meghalaya. The chairperson of the NIT Rourkela senate is Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao.
It is a standard practice of all the universities of India that if a student cannot physically attend classes in the university campus due to health problems, the student is not allowed to write the exam for that semester. If the student has physically attended all the classes but was infected with some contagious disease, then the standard practice is to arrange a sick room with an invigilator within the university campus for the student to write the exam.
This standard practice has been totally violated by the senates of the NITAP and the NITRKL.
It has been observed that the senates permitted three students to write online exams from the comfort of their homes, without deployment of any invigilator, whatsoever. This decision of the NITAP senate brazenly nullifies the very objective of conducting examination of students and is a legal permit for cheating in an exam of a university of national importance. The decision of the senate does not specify how a fair and cheating free online exam should be conducted for the three students. The decision of the NITAP senate is totally arbitrary and is a mockery of the rest of the 750 students and 56 teachers of the NITAP who are diligently writing and invigilating exams in the exam halls of the NITAP. The decision of the NITAP senate has compromised the very objective of free and fair examination.
Such arbitrary decisions taken by the NITAP senate would definitely compromise the efforts of the teachers and majority of the students of the NITAP. The decision would surely tarnish the image and reputation of the NITAP and discourage prospective students from taking admission into the NITAP. More importantly, such decision of the NITAP senate would adversely hamper the recruiters, who are mostly private multinational companies, to recruit the students of the NITAP in campus recruitments.
Further, the minutes of the senate mentions that the competent authority of NIT Rourkela (ie, Director Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao) has approved Swayam Sahu, who is a registered student of NITAP, to attend classes at NIT Rourkela. How on earth and under which provisions of the NITs is such permission possible? Then all the students of other universities should also be permitted to attend classes at NIT Rourkela. This decision of the NIT Rourkela senate is totally arbitrary and is putting the hard-earned reputation of NIT Rourkela at stake. How could the NITAP senate accept such arbitrary decisions of NIT Rourkela? What if such a thing had happened in a medical college? The repercussions of such decisions of the NITAP senate to permit students to write online exams from their homes in the post-Covid days, on health grounds, would directly and adversely affect the public at large. This is a perfect misuse of the autonomy granted to NIT Rourkela and the NITAP, and can’t stand the test of reason in the court of law.
Furthermore, as per the minutes of the 44th BoG meeting, dated 7/03/2023, for the second time, the senates of NIT Rourkela and the NITAP have approved Swayam Sahu to attend offline classes at NIT Rourkela and write exams at the NITAP.
This practice totally nullifies the very objective of the joint entrance exams (JEE). Swayam Sahu took admission at NITAP because he could not get admission at NIT Rourkela as per his JEE rank. It appears that Swayam Sahu, the NITAP senate and the NIT Rourkela senate have colluded to nullify the very purpose of JEE on the grounds of health issues, and it is injustice to all other students who are sincerely abiding by the JEE seat allocation.
It is alleged that the father of Swayam Sahu has close ties with the union education minister. Such decisions taken by the NITAP senate and NIT Rourkela senate should be brought to the knowledge of other students and public at large as these institutions are completely funded by public money. The union higher education department should look into this matter before it is dragged to the court of law by students and the public.
Biri Opa,
Proprietor,
M/s Grace Repair Centre,
Ganga Market, Itanagar