The Haryana Higher Education Department has detected alleged irregularities in promotion cases of college teachers, observing that some faculty members made false claims and adopted dishonest means to secure promotion to the Professor scale.
Taking serious note of the matter, the government has proposed strict action not only against the applicants concerned, but also against college principals and Internal Quality Assurance Cell teams that recommended and forwarded such cases to the department headquarters.
In an official communication issued to principals of all government colleges on Thursday, the department stated that while scrutinising promotion cases from Associate Professor (Academic Level 13A) to Professor Scale (Academic Level 14), it found that certain applicants had falsely claimed research publications to fulfil eligibility norms and criteria.
“The department has noted that the objective behind granting the Professor scale is to incentivise academic excellence, maintain high standards in higher education and provide career progression based on merit to the qualified and competent research-oriented teachers. However, such ‘dishonest approaches’ defeat the very purpose of the promotion policy,” sources said.
The communication further warned that fraudulent practices adopted merely to obtain higher grades and financial benefits would erode institutional integrity and undermine public trust in the education system. The government, therefore, is considering severe action against such applicants.
“As a large number of promotion cases have already been received from the colleges, the competent authority has decided to provide an opportunity to applicants, principals and Internal Quality Assurance Cell teams to withdraw those cases which they wish to re-examine. Hence, interested candidates, principals and quality assurance teams may send their proposal within 10 days to withdraw such cases,” the communication stated.
A college principal, requesting anonymity, said that an associate professor, after becoming eligible for promotion, submits the case to the Internal Quality Assurance Cell for scrutiny. Eligibility is assessed on the basis of academic scores calculated through research publications, seminars, books authored and other academic activities.
