The CIC has pulled up the UGC for not sharing complete information about a case of cheating against a deemed university, chided it for being a “post office” and “vehemently defending” the institution facing allegations of invalid medical degrees.
Issuing show-cause notice to explain why maximum penalty of Rs25,000 was not imposed on their officials for withholding information sought by RTI applicant, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu noted that the CPIO of the UGC was defending the university as if he was its “hired counsel”.
Acharyulu said it appears that the UGC office has simply acted as “post office” to transfer letters to the University.
“The Commission noticed that there was no action on the complaints raised by the appellant regarding non-recognition of the degree, sufferings of 42 students, collection of Rs40 lakh from each student as against declared fee of Rs3.5 lakh, the cheating case registered by a student, etc. The University also did not respond to any of the letters written by the UGC,” the Information Commissioner said.