HC seeks salary, attendance records of JNU Asst professor

The Delhi High Court has asked for salary details and attendance records of a JNU assistant professor whose appointment is under challenge for allegedly committing "plagiarism".
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar has directed the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to produce the professor's records, if any, for the period 2012 to 2014 when he was allegedly pursuing a Masters degree in Turkish Language and Literature from Turkey.
"JNU shall file an additional affidavit placing before us the record relating to payment of salary, if any and the attendance record, if any, relating to Gous Mashkoor Khan for the period 2012-14," it said.

The court has now listed the matter for further hearing on February 28 next year.
The court's direction came on a plea by a law graduate and a RTI activist, Mobashshir Sarwar and M Arshad Parvez, who have alleged that Khan, an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Turkish School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies in JNU, was not "eligible" for the post.
Parvez, who did his BA (Honours) in Turkish language and literature from Jamia Millia Islamia in the year 2015, further alleged that the assistant professor "plagiarised" an online literature work in Turkish Language and published the same in 2012 with a new title -- 'A new approach to Turkish language learning'.

The petitioners have sought a direction to "constitute a high-level fact-finding committee for fixing responsibilities of the intellectual plagiarism committed by the assistant professor".
They have also sought a direction to the University Grants Commission to "constitute a high-powered committee as a permanent mechanism to effectively prevent the serious issue of plagiarism in academic circle and universities".
The plea has alleged that even his 62 per cent of MA thesis is plagiarised according to the Turnitin report - a software recommended by the UGC to curb menace of plagiarism in academic circle.