A Scheduled Tribe faculty member at a Centre-run institution in Allahabad has been suspended without an inquiry into allegations of misbehaviour.

M. Venkatesh Naik, who serves as an assistant professor in the electrical engineering department of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), Allahabad, was suspended on September 19, two days after 22 faculty members lodged a complaint of misbehaviour against him. Naik, who wasn’t allowed to defend himself, has been asked to stay put at the institute during suspension.

The case has come up at a time when complaints of caste-based discrimination are being reported across higher educational institutions. The government think tank Niti Aayog is carrying out a survey by reaching out to students and faculty members in universities, IITs, IIMs and other institutions to collect data on their campus experiences.

Naik, from Andhra Pradesh, has been fighting a battle with the administration and a few faculty members over the discrimination he claims to have faced in the allocation of PhD candidates for supervision. An assistant professor is allowed to supervise four PhD students at any point. Since Naik joined the institute in 2012, he has guided four students, two of whom left before completing the course.

In March, Naik moved the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) to complain against alleged discrimination in the allocation of PhD candidates. On May 30, the NCST directed the institute that “two PhD candidates may be allotted to him in 2025 as compensation for the denial of PhD students in 2018 and 2019, and to improve his research profile for future promotion”.

His department, headed by Nitin Singh who is also the chairman of the PhD student allotment committee, on September 11 decided to allot two PhD scholars, including a part-time student, to Naik. Naik requested that he be allotted a regular scholar as directed by the NCST, and the part-time PhD student be allotted to another faculty.

At an internal meeting of the department on September 17, some faculty members raised Naik’s demand and suggested that the part-time student be withdrawn from him. Naik objected since he was not getting a regular student after the withdrawal. After the meeting, 22 faculty members filed a complaint of “inappropriate behaviour” against Naik during departmental discussions and meetings.

According to the Central Civil Service (Conduct) Rules, which apply to the institute, the MNNIT is supposed to set up an inquiry committee and issue a showcause notice to a person being charged to enable him to defend his case. In this case, the institute suspended Naik on September 19 without an inquiry.

The Telegraph sent an email to the regular director, R.S. Verma, to understand
the rationale behind the institute suspending the assistant professor. Verma’s response
is awaited.