Nepotism in ad hoc appointment at NIPER

To:

Dr V. M.  Katoch, Chairman BOG, NIPER

Secretary to Govt. of India,

Department of Health Research, Ramalingaswami Bhawan,

Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029,

Subject: DENIAL OF FAIR AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN MATTER PERTAINING TO SELECTION TO POST OF PROFESSOR (PHARMACEUTICS) AT NIPER, MOHALI

Ref: REGULARIZATION OF DR. JYOTI PALIWAL AS PROFESSOR IN DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS, WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISEMENT OR FORMATION OF ANY SELECTION COMMITTEE (in serious violation of NIPER statutes, constitutional provisions and also Govt. of India rules regarding fair selection procedures in Govt. Institutes)

Copy to: All BOG members for necessary action in the forthcoming BOG meeting to be held on 28.05.12

Dear Sir,

With due respect, I wish to place before you the following facts:

1. That in May, 2011 the current Officiating Director, Prof. K.K. Bhutani recruited Dr. Jyoti Paliwal as a Professor in Pharmaceutics, on ad-hoc basis.

2. Under the NIPER Statutes, Clause 4.4, Director can appoint a faculty on ad-hoc basis. However, as per NIPER Statutes, Clause 4.7  reproduced below:

 “An ad hoc appointment shall have to go through regular selection within one year against a normal vacancy in accordance with para 4.2 and 4.3 of the statutes of NIPER.”

Thus, regularization of a Professor appointed on ad-hoc basis will be illegal if faculty recruited does not go through a regular process of selection as per NIPER statutes and Govt. of India laws and rules, which are binding in matter of all recruitments in all govt. institutions including NIPER.

3. The regular selection process (as per  NIPER statutes and Govt. of India rules and constitution Art, 14 regarding equal opportunity)  involves:

-  Making an open advt. clearly mentioning the essential requirements for post advertised.

-  Short-listing of all candidates without any bias

- Interview of the short-listed candidates by a Selection Committee constituted as per clause 3.6 of NIPER statutes and approved by the NIPER Board of Governors

- Declaration of the result in a fair and transparent manner within a reasonable period of time

 Bypassing these will amount to a serious violation of Statutes.

In present case, I am an aggrieved party because regularization of Dr. Jyoti Paliwal as Professor (Pharmaceutics) without advertisement of the post, will result in denial of fair and equal opportunity to me to compete for the post. I am eligible to compete for the post of Professor (Pharmaceutics) as per NIPER statute clause 4.1.3 reproduced below:

“Professor: PhD with first class or equivalent grade at the preceding degree in the appropriate branch with a very good academic record throughout and at least 10 years of teaching/research/ Industrial experience with published work of high quality well recognized and established reputation of having made conspicuous seminal contribution to knowledge in pharmaceutical and allied areas” 

Apart from my documented contribution in pharmaceutics, a comparative of my academic credentials vis-a-vis that of Dr. J. Paliwal shows that I am very much eligible for competing to the post of Professor (Pharmaceutics). Citation indices of Dr. Neeraj Kumar and Dr, Jyoti Paliwal from Google Scholar, Internationally accepted indices of Scientific excellence, as on 22.05.2012

	Neeraj Kumar		Jyoti Paliwal
	All	Since 2007	All	Since 2007
Citations	1187	919	445	286
h-index	17	15	12	9
i10-index	28	25	17	8

Key to the terms used above: All:  It refers to total citations of the author since his /her first publication. Since 2007:Refers to only the citations of last 5 years of the author. h-index: is the largest number h such that h publications have at least h citations. i10-index: is the number of publications of the author with at least 10 citations.

In case the post is advertized and equal opportunity given to all eligible candidates, the most deserving and suitable candidate will be selected for the post of professor Pharmaceutics. It is relevant to mention here that from 01.01.2010 till date 22.05.12, the post of Professor in department of Pharmaceutics has not been advertised. The only advertisement for faculty recruitment is the rolling Advertisement for recruiting Asst/Assoc Professors only in various departments ADVT. NO. 12 & 20/2010 (copy enclosed). There is no mention at all in the advertisement for any vacancy for professor in any department. 

Due to the reasons above, regularization of appointment of Dr. Jyoti Paliwal as Professor in Pharmaceutics (without advertisement of normal vacancy of Professor in Pharmaceutics) by BOG, will amount to a serious violation of NIPER statutes and constitutional provision under article 14.

Prayer: 

Post of Professor in Department of Pharmaceutics may please be advertized thus giving a fair opportunity to all deserving candidates and not to just one candidate i.e. Dr. Jyoti Paliwal. 

Sincerely,

Neeraj Kumar, PhD

PS: This e.mail is being sent through my g.mail account as it was not passing through NIPER mail