IIT Kharagpur not only shielded three of its top professors, who were indicted by the CBI in the CoalNet scam way back in 2007, but also promoted them and gave them higher income grades in clear defiance of the norms laid by the Central Civil Services Rule.
According to Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) guidelines, when there are charges of misappropriation of funds and misrepresentation of facts, the accused (in this case the professors) cannot continue at their respective positions. They have to be directed by the concerned authorities to either resign from their position, or be suspended and least be proceeded on leave.
The CBI had submitted its report on CoalNet scam in September 2007 to the then IIT Kharagpur Director Prof Damodar Acharya indicting three top professors of the institute in the scandal that surfaced in 2004.
While the report was submitted almost six years ago implicating the professors, in due course — IIT Patna Director Prof A K Bhowmick, IIT-KGP Dean and Director-select Prof PP Chakraborty and Prof RN Banerjee, who superannuated but was on extension at the institute, got promotions and higher income grade against the norms laid by the Central Services Rule.
The DoPT Guidelines for Expeditious Disposal of Disciplinary Proceedings, 1985, state wherever the allegations are investigated by CBI, the CVC is required to be consulted by the department (here IIT-KGP) about the action to be taken on the investigation report.
The department is bound to furnish their comments to the CVC within a month of the receipt of the investigation report. In case of disagreement with the advice of the CVC, the matter should be referred to the commission for reconsideration of its advice only once.
Though Chakraborty has resigned in the wake of CVC’s advice of penalty proceedings, his resignation comes as a mark of protest against the HRD Ministry and CVC. The CVC upheld the CBI recommendation for departmental proceedings against three top IIT professors through an office memorandum on February 19, 2013 as first reported by The Pioneer. The administration of the prestigious institute which has been mired in controversy in recent times is yet to penalise Bhowmick, Banerjee and Chakraborty as well.
“The Central Government service rules are applicable to IITs also, when certain statutes are silent. In this particular case, the IIT-KGP statutes are silent, therefore in the above matter, Central Civil Service (Control, Classification and Appeals), as known as CCS (CCA) Rules and DOPT guidelines are applicable,” said a top HRD Ministry official.
The DopT Guidelines also state in cases investigated by the CBI as well as in other cases, the charge sheet should be issued within one month of the receipt of the CVC’s advice.
However, Prof Bhowmick was made IIT Director Patna, in the scale of Secretary, Govt. Of India in May 2009, Prof Chakrabarti was promoted to HAG grade in 2011 despite CBI’s indictment and in the same year Prof RN Banerjee got re-appointment after superannuating. CBI had investigated and submitted report to IIT-KGP in September 2007.
As already reported by The Pioneer, Board of Governors’ twice resolved to quash the CBI report against the professors and now all eyes are on the next BoG meeting on March 23.
Also, through RTI Revelations, gross irregularities pinpoint Kharagpur administration facilitating Bhowmick’s appointment as Director, IIT Patna and selection of Chakraborty, as Director-select. The institute did not seek mandatory vigilance clearance for both even as pending CBI’s recommendations for action.