Degree issued by one varsity to be respected by all: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed Pune University to consider the PhD of a petitioner that he earned from the Rajasthan University in 2012 on the grounds that it was granted by the university after following the proper procedure. The university had rejected the PhD on the grounds that one of the two guides under whom the PhD research was undertaken was an adjunct professor. The court rejected the grounds saying that a degree issued by a university recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) has to be respected by other universities too.

The division bench of justices B R Gavai and R I Chagla was hearing a writ petition filed by Dr Sanjay Singh questioning whether one university could reject a degree issued by another university and whether a university could reject the doctoral degree on the grounds that a guide was an adjunct professor. The petition was filed through advocate Kalyani Tulankar.

While arguing for the petitioner, senior counsel Anil Anturkar said that the rejection of the degree by Pune University was unjustified as they had failed to verify the details of the guides under whom Dr Singh had completed his research. “The university referred to the name of the adjunct professor only while the name of the guide assigned by Rajasthan University was not taken into consideration,” said Anturkar.

The UGC also filed an affidavit stating the rules set out for guides and the role of adjunct professors.