An inquiry committee set up to investigate allegations of plagiarism against a research scholar and the Vice-Chancellor of Kumaon University over a paper authored by them has upheld the charges.Set up by the Governor of Uttaranchal and Chancellor of Kumaon University Sudarshan Agarwal, the report states in its final findings: ‘‘The charge of plagiarism is.not only established against (the research student, S.C.) Joshi but also against Prof B.S. Rajput (the Vice-Chancellor of Kumaon University).’’The two are accused of copying huge portions of a six-year-old paper published in Physical Review by Professor Renata Kallosh of the Physics Department of Stanford University on physics of black holes, word for word and equation for equation, for a paper jointly authored by them. This paper was printed in March 2002 in the respected Europhysics Letters journal, and also formed part of chapter five of the PhD thesis of Joshi, testified by Rajput as being ‘‘original’’.After holding a series of inquests in Dehra Dun and New Delhi, the inquiry committee chaired by Justice S.R. Singh, former judge of the Allahabad High Court, said: ‘‘A bare comparison of the two works, not from the viewpoint of a hyper technical or meticulous observer but from the angle of the average reasonable reader, would reveal complete similarity not only in all mathematical equations and symbols but also in the word by word language used in the two works and the tone, tenor and manner of expression of ideas.’’Asked for his reaction, Rajput told The Indian Express from his university office in Nainital: ‘‘I am ready to resign.’’ However, he said, he would appeal to the Chancellor and other authorities to emphasise he ‘‘personally had done no wrong’’. According to him, Joshi did not take his consent for the paper nor was he informed about it.However, the inquiry committee, which has submitted its findings to Governor Agarwal, said: ‘‘The committee is of the firm view that the disputed paper was in fact a joint venture of Joshi and Prof Rajput and therefore, Prof Rajput cannot escape liability.’’ When contacted, Agarwal said: ‘‘I have not read the findings as yet but I will definitely have to take a view on the report,’’ adding that action will be taken ‘‘in an unbiased and dispassionate fashion’’.The other members of the committee were Prof K.B. Powar, former chief of the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi; Prof Indira Nath, former secretary of the Society of Scientific Values and AIIMS faculty member and physicist Prof R. Rajaraman of JNU.
