PATNA, April 17 -- The controversy-ridden appointment of assistant professors in Bihar continues to throw bizarre cases, raising a question mark over the entire process, with the latest instance of forgery being reported from the Patna University. Patna University registrar has written to the director, higher education, NK Aggarwal, that the recommendation of the candidate Vivek Kumar, made by BSUSC on serial No. 1 in the geography subject, is under cloud as the experience letter supplied by him has been declared fake by the Gorakhpur University registrar Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Attaching a copy of the Gorakhpur University registrar's verification report, the PU registrar has written that the experience letter supplied by the candidate, which formed the basis of his shortlisting, interview call and final selection, has been issued by a college where the subject is not even taught. "The Gorakhpur University registrar has categorically mentioned in his verification report that the college, Shri Krishna Upadhyay Mahima College (Rudrapur, Devaria), from where the experience certificate is claimed to have been issued, does not have geography as a subject and the letter pad of the college has been misused to prepare forged experience certificate," the PU registrar has written, a copy of which has also been sent to the Lok Bhawan. The university has immediately stopped Vivek Kumar from discharging duty and withheld his salary till a lawful decision on this is taken by the department of higher education. This is, however, not an isolated case, as several universities have reported detection of forged documents, especially experience certificates, during verification ahead of joining. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (Muzaffarpur) had last month written to the BSUSC and the department of higher education for specific guidelines to determine the yardstick for verification of experience certificates after the recommendation has been made, as many cases were under scanner and could take time. The guidelines were sought following detection that several candidates got shortlisted and also selected on the basis of experience certificates, which were either fake or never issued in accordance with the laid down provisions, but passed the scrutiny at the level of BSUSC. The VC questioned that after recommendation, the universities being asked to verify them before allowing joining was a bit strange and cumbersome. Some candidates provided teaching experience certificate without fulfilling the mandatory minimum criteria or acquired them from "ghost institutions". There are also Class 3 employees who availed marks on experience teaching at a different place simultaneously, while the institutions failed to provide supporting documents. There are still others who furnished experience certificates for the period when they did not possess the desired qualification for the job. There are also others who availed minimum qualification for teaching much later, but produced experience certificates of the earlier period. There are still others who did not receive prescribed payment though banks or those who taught in institutions that were not even affiliated. There are also candidates whose documents were said to have been lost in flood or due to termite and no document is available for cross-checking. With hundreds of cases related to assistant professors' appointment before the Patna high court, a senior department official admitted that things were getting difficult and could lead to bigger controversy, as the discrepancies were no more isolated and this could put a question mark on the sanctity of the selection process. "What is worrying is that many have already joined while the verification process is still ongoing," he added. Strangely, while the ongoing appointment of assistant professors since 2020 is yet to be completed and is saddled with hundreds of court cases also, the move for fresh appointment in the state universities with new rules involving a written test has triggered a debate due to growing quality concern, trust deficit in the system after recent fiasco, disregard for top 6% of UGC-NET/CSIR qualified candidates eligible for assistant professors through an all-India test, no weightage to doctorates from top-rung institutions in keeping with UGC categorisation of universities since 2018 and uploaded on Shodhganga repository and absence of domicile policy. "The examination of assistant education development officer (AEDO) has just underlined the challenges in holding such exams, as centres are managed and a well-organised racket operates. When UGC-NET/CSIR takes bi-annual exams at the national level, there is no point creating room for more controversy. Young and more qualified candidates having qualified for assistant professor through UGC-NET/CSIR should be given top priority for the larger good of higher education, which should be a matter of concern and focus area for the new government," said social analyst Prof NK Choudhary....