Responding to a complaint pertaining to Gujarat Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Shanker Chaudhary’s alleged MBA degree, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday has issued notice and asked for investigation.
A Division Bench headed by acting Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court Jayant Patel and Justice NV Anjaria observed that the State Election Commission cannot become passive in such cases and sought reply from the State Government, the Minister in question, Superintendent of Police of Patan and two educational institutes. The High Court has now posted the next hearing in the case on October 29.
A social activist, Farsu Goklani, had filed a petition alleging that Gujarat’s Minister of State for Health Chaudhary had written 2012 as the year he got MBA degree. “However, records pertaining to the Minister suggest that he had finished high school previous year,” claimed the complainant.
According to complainant, in the 2007 Assembly elections, Chaudhary declared that he had done his senior secondary (Class X) and in 2012 elections he declared that he completed Higher Secondary (Class XII) and MBA too. “As per the claims of Chaudhary he completed SSC in 1987 and HSC in 2011. It is evident that no university in the planet can give MBA degree within one year of completion of HSC,” said Goklani in his petition adding, “Chaudhary has shown to have got his MBA from National Institute of Management based in Baroda. Now this institute itself has cases against it since 2008, with over 500 fake degrees already seized from it in the past.”
Chaudhary is elected from Vav Assembly constituency in North Gujarat and considered very close to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. He became Minister after Patel became the Gujarat Chief Minister after BJP’s historic victory in lok Sabha elections in May 2014. Chaudhary had completed both his SSC and HSC from Sheth KB Vakil Vividhlaxi Vidyalaya in Patan district.
Goklani, who is a Congress worker, has demanded that State Election Commission should cancel Chaudhary’s candidature and the State Government need to sack him from his ministerial post.