By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: For 13 years since he submitted his Ph.D. thesis he has been waiting for viva voce examination and for this he has made rounds and rounds of concerned departments at Aligarh Muslim University but to no avail. At last he took the matter to Allahabad High Court on 8th of this January.
Wildlife scientist Hilaluddin submitted his Ph.D. thesis at the Department of Wildlife Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University in 1995 but “due to careless and negligent attitude of the university authorities” as he alleges in his writ petition, he hasn’t yet been awarded Ph.D. degree.
According to the petition, a copy of which is with TCN, he submitted draft of thesis to his then supervisor Dr Afifullah Khan for his kind perusal in the end of 1995. Dr. Afifullah Khan duly checked his thesis and returned the draft to petitioner for final print out. At the same time, according to Hilaluddin, he was asked to marry sister of one of his (Khan’s) close friends. Hilaluddin straightforward refused the proposal, and here started the 13-year-long story.
According to the petition, annoyed Dr Afifullah Khan asked Hilaluddin to appear in M. Phil. examination on the basis of the resolution of the Item No. 6 of BoS/CWO/23.09.95. Hilaluddin verbally requested him to look over his admission’s legality (Admission Slip No. 657/Cont./AMU/05.01.94 AND Cash Receipts No. 77714/05.01.94) and allow him to submit his Ph.D. thesis as he was admitted to pursue direct Ph.D. program (L.D. No. 3308/Proc/AMU/01.01.94). He also reminded him about prevalent direct Ph.D. program in Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
He told Dr. Afifullah Khan that he had recommendation of AMU authorities – Chairman of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Dean Student Welfare, Provost of V.M. Hall, Controller of Admissions and Proctor, that allowed him for getting admitted to direct Ph.D. program.
Dr. Afifullah Khan did not budge. Hilaluddin brought the matter into the notice of the higher authorities in AMU through a letter Ref. No. 4409/VC/AMU on 10.01.1996.
“In revenge, Dr. Afifullah Khan wrote a letter (Ref. No. 82/96/CWO/Int. dated 23.01.96) to the then Chairman of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences. In this letter, he framed prejudiced allegations against petitioner for his non-involvement in Ph.D. program in a serious manner and also not taking up M. Phil, and he was unaware of the whereabouts of the petitioner. And Dr. Afifullah Khan even recommended for cancellation of admission of petitioner,” says the petition.
Subsequently the Board of Studies of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences recommended for cancellation of the admission of Hilaluddin on 02.03.1996 “without giving an opportunity to him to defend himself.” He wrote letters against the board ruling to competent authorities of AMU.
The Committee for Advanced Study and Research (CASR) of that faculty in its meeting XXVIII on 24.05.1996 unanimously rejected the board order and asked the Chairman to forward the thesis of Hilaluddin to the office of Controller of Examinations. But that order was not implemented.
Rather, on 25.05.1996 Chairman of Dept. of Wildlife Sciences wrote a letter to Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, expressing doubt over CASR decision. Dean forwarded the letter to VC, and when asked by Controller, Dean said, “there is no record to establish that petitioner ever requested for obtaining direct Ph.D. degree and also petitioner was never admitted directly to Ph.D. program at the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences.” Hilaluddin says his office has issued Ph.D. bona fide certificates to him on 11.04.1994 and 09.01.1996 on the recommendation of the then Chairman of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences and his preceded Dean has also recommended for direct Ph.D. admission to him on his Ph. D. Admission Form.
On 06.06.1996 Hilaluddin wrote a letter to Deputy Controller Academics who sought answers from chairman who forwarded the letter to Dr Afifullah Khan two days later. Khan replied that he never checked Ph.D. thesis of Hilaluddin. He said “the write up produced by petitioner before him in the end of 1995 belonged to a report of the petitioner, he checked and returned for rewriting owing to substandard work,” reads the petition.
On 08.06.1996, Assistant Controller of Examinations initiated revision of legality of Ph.D. thesis submission of Hilaluddin, advised Dept. of Wildlife Sciences to take further action on the matter in the light of the CASR decision and also as per clauses of AMU Academic Ordinance that govern Ph.D. submission.
On 29.03.1997 the then Chairman of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences informed petitioner that in response to his letter action will be taken after discussing the matter with Dr Afifullah and Dean of Faculty of Life Sciences and he will be informed. But he was never informed.
Meanwhile, Prof. HAS Yahya was appointed as new chairman of the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences. He “took positive action on petitioner’s request on 20.07.1998. He agreed to forward his Ph.D. thesis to Controller after approval of concerned board of studies and CASR. Board discussed the matter on the same day and appointed Prof. Yahya as new supervisor of petitioner and authorized him to send names of examiners of petitioner to Controller.”
CSAR approved this decision of the board in its meeting on 03.02.1999. But Hilaluddin was not informed.
When he came to know about it in 2002 he contacted Prof. Yahya who advised him to update his thesis because of long academic gap. But Hilaluddin could not take leave from his professional commitments then to rewrite the thesis.
However, he rewrote entire thesis in 2005 and finally submitted it at the Dept. of Wildlife Sciences on 22.09.2005. The new chairman of the Dept. forwarded the thesis to the office of the Controller through the Dean Faculty of Life Sciences.
The Vice Chancellor appointed examiners of Hilaluddin on 20.12.2005 on his request of 13.05.2005
Meanwhile Hilaluddin had become ex-student, so the issue of an ex-student submitting his Ph.D. thesis itself took two years to settle.
At last, “on media intervention VC granted permission to petitioner to submit thesis as an ex-student on 04.11.2007.” As Hilaluddin had already submitted the thesis at Dept. years ago, the Dean forwarded it to Controller for onward transmission.
“Indian examiners submitted report on 28.11.2007 and 22.02.2008 and foreign examiner on 28.11.2007. All examiners unanimously recommended awarding of Ph.D. degree to Hilaluddin. Their reports were sent to Dean who recommended for viva voce. Controller sent personal file petitioner to the VC (Ref. No. 3756/VCO/25.09.08). On return of file, Controller ordered Chairman for holding viva voce of petitioner on 04.09.2008. (The Petitioner has got all the above given information by the Right to Information Act).
But Hilaluddin did not agree to this order of the Controller. He says “the Controller’s order was in violation of Clause 11 under Chapter XXV of AMU Academic Ordinances that govern procedure of conducting viva voce of a candidate for a Ph.D. program.
“Under media pressure, university fixed a meeting with petitioner on 10.10.2008. After hours of discussions parties agreed to wait return of his supervisor to India. The said decision was brought to the notice of VC.”
Hilaluddin says his supervisor Prof. Yahya has returned and resumed on 19.12.2008 for 4-5 weeks then he will return to USA. He says Prof. Yahya will leave country on 30.01.2009 for his assignment in USA. If his viva voce is not conducted before that, the entire process shall again be prolonged and delay the proceedings for another one year.
That’s why he approached the Allahabad High Court and filed writ petition making VC, Controller of Examinations and Admissions, Dr. Afifullah Khan, Chairman, Dept. of Wildlife Sciences as respondents.
“He has urged the court to give directions to respondents for scheduling the viva voce before 30.01.2009 to avoid the possibility of the degree for which the petitioner had been inspiring for the last 13 years and has been denied the same for no fault of him only due to the arbitrary, unreasonable and unfair attitude of the respondents.”
The court heard the case on January 13, and the counsel for the AMU, as Hilaluddin told TCN, sought a week’s time from the court to respond. The university is likely to respond on January 21.
VC, Controller of Examinations and Admissions and Chairman, Dept. of Wildlife Sciences have been made party in this case. Dr Rahat Abrar, PRO, AMU, however, is not aware of the case. He told TCN that he was not aware of any Hilaluddin Vs AMU case.