Pune, June 6: The CBI has registered a case against the Principal of Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and four other employees of the institute, including a professor, on charges of irregularities in the appointment of teaching faculty to the organisation's different posts, the agency said on Wednesday.
Separate Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams on Wednesday conducted raids at multiple locations, including residences and official premises of the accused persons, in Maharashtra's Pune.
Besides NDA's Principal Omprakash Shukla, Jagmohan Meher - a Political Science professor, Vanita Puri - an associate professor of Chemistry, Rajiv Bansal - an associate professor, Maheshwar Roy - the Head of Department of Chemistry and other unidentified persons of the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) and IDS (Integrated Defence Staff, which comes under Ministry of Defence) have been named in the CBI FIR.
The FIR was lodged on Tuesday following a complaint of malpractices in the recruitment process of teaching faculty in the academy.
"We registered the FIR based on a complaint about irregularities in the selection/ appointment to different posts of teaching faculty in NDA," a CBI official said in Delhi.
The CBI FIR alleged that that certain faculties of the NDA entered into a conspiracy with unknown officials of the UPSC and the IDS.
"They got selected and appointed to different posts of teaching faculty in NDA without possessing teaching/ research experience as prescribed by the UPSC and as required by Ministry of Defence on the basis of the forged and false certificates," a CBI official said.
The CBI alleged that Shukla has been the Principal of the institute since 2011. "The alleged corruption in appointments started way back in 2007, when he applied for the post of professor," the official said.
"These teachers were involved in fudging the API (Academic Performance Indicators) of candidates who were not qualified to be professors at the institute," he said.
According to the CBI, the appointment of civilian academic officers, including the Principal, Vice Principal, professors and assistant professors at the NDA, is done through the UPSC.
The UPSC publishes an advertisement inviting applications in which qualification criteria are listed. Two important criteria are API points and academic experience.
At least 15 such appointments have been made since 2007, sources said.
Meanwhile, a NDA spokesperson said: "NDA was apprised of the allegations by the CBI team on their arrival this morning. They had with them relevant documents authorising the procedure for necessary investigation."
"It is clarified that the issue related to allegations of submission of inappropriate documentations by some academic faculty members at the time of their selection and appointment to NDA by the UPSC. Necessary actions are at hand and due procedures will be followed," he added.
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New Delhi (PTI): Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday said India has emerged as a vibrant democracy and a geopolitical leader, and the Constitution of the country has helped in this transformation.
India has had a transformative journey from a nation, which under the aftermath and horrors of partition saw widespread illiteracy, poverty, lack of robust democratic system of checks and balances, to one which has now become a self-assured leader, the CJI said.
"But at the back of it is the Constitution of India, which has helped this transformation. It is today a way of life that has to be lived up to," Justice Khanna said, while speaking at the Constitution Day function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) at the apex court.
Since 2015, November 26 is observed as Constitution Day to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Earlier, the day was observed as Law Day.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, SCBA president and senior advocate Kapil Sibal also addressed the gathering.
In his address, Justice Khanna highlighted the importance and contribution of the Bar and said, "We often refer to the judiciary as persons in robes, that is, the judges, but judiciary equally represents the Bar".
"I cannot visualise the judiciary where the members of the Bar are not a part and parcel of it. You are as much part of the judiciary as the judges," he said.
The CJI said he was a member of the Bar from 1983 to 2005, when he got elevated as a judge, and his tenure as a member of the Bar is longer than his tenure as a judge.
"Judges come from the Bar and go back to the Bar. We belong to the Bar. The better the Bar, the better the judges," he said.
Justice Khanna said the Supreme Court has had a very strong and good legacy and there are decisions right from environmental law, privacy laws, fundamental rights to the basic structure doctrine.
"Many of these decisions, I do not think would have been possible without the contribution and efforts of the member of the Bar," he said.
Justice Khanna said since he has taken over as the CJI, he has made various attempts to look into the issues and problems faced by Bar members.
He referred to the steps taken, including setting up notice boards outside the courtrooms where physical cause list is shown and improving the Wi-Fi services in the top court.
"I have one request to make and I hope it will be taken in the right spirit. I have been repeatedly getting requests for re-circulation of letters of adjournment. I have looked into the data," Justice Khanna said while pointing out that the data showed there were about 9,000 to 10,000 applications or letters for adjournments being circulated every three months.
"So, it is not going to be possible for us to go back to the earlier system. Whatever system we have now adopted, we can, if you come up with some suggestions for improvements, look into it, but going back to the earlier system may be counter-productive," he said.
The CJI said the apex court received about 1,400 applications in the new system in the last 11 months.
"You can see the difference. From 100 applications a day to about 150 applications a month. That's a huge change and let us, therefore, go with the right spirit," he said.
Justice Khanna said today is the day to introspect, to look into and assess the strong points and weaknesses.
"As the Attorney General has rightly pointed out, it is a day when we look at the scorecard. We don't think the scorecard is blank. We have good scores but there are issues which we have to tackle. And let us unifiedly tackle those issues with the members of the Bar and the judiciary both contributing to this...," he said.