Over the last four years, Brijesh Kumar Rai has filed at least six PILs and over 300 RTI applications to unearth corruption at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Rai has been a professor in the university’s electronics and electrical engineering department since 2011.

His crusade against corruption hasn’t gone according to plan, however, despite the numerous letters he has sent about it to the university’s administration, its director, board of governors, and even the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Instead, Rai was suspended in November 2019. In January, he was forced to take “compulsory retirement”. He has also been asked to vacate his official residence, even though the Delhi High Court has stayed this until the next hearing in March.

For Rai, this is the latest in a series of missteps by the university and its benefactors in dealing with the allegations of corruption that he has tried to spotlight. “I have faced a lot of harassment and injustice,” Rai told Newslaundry. “My research has suffered and I have been targeted. But I will continue to fight for what is right.”

Criminal writ petition

In 2018, Rai filed a criminal writ petition in the Delhi High Court. It runs into about 200 pages, compiling data from the RTI requests he has filed and detailing his corruption allegations. Rai said he filed the petition after consulting with a lawyer friend.

The plea, however, was turned into a PIL. The court ruled that the matters listed in it did not affect Rai directly but concerned public interest. The court also said the case was beyond its territorial jurisdiction since the cause of action was in Guwahati.

“I wasn’t convinced by this response because in cases of financial irregularities in academic institutes under the central government, the HRD ministry is the funding authority,” Rai said.

He sent the petition, now PIL, to the HRD ministry. “There were 17 causes of action,” Rai explained. “Corresponding to each one I attached the reply to the respective RTI applications that I had filed. But there was no response or action from their side.”

Here’s a rundown of some of Rai’s allegations.

Recruitment process violations

Gautam Biswas took over as the director of IIT Guwahati in 2013 and retired in 2019. In this time, recruitment was done several times. Rai noticed discrepancies and filed RTI applications. And every response he received puts the administration under scrutiny.

Newslaundry read through all the responses to RTI requests filed by Rai and found that they substantiate his claims.

In February 2014, IIT Guwahati posted a recruitment notice on its website for 25 junior assistants and five junior accountants. Five junior accountants were hired. For the post of junior assistant, 25 candidates were selected but only 24 joined. The remaining candidate was to be recruited from the waiting list.

In accordance with the law, a waiting list is valid for one year. However, the board of governor — the IIT’s decision-making body — held a meeting in December 2015 and extended the validity of the waiting list to two years.

Then, the IIT decided to employ more junior assistants. So, the director appointed 30 people from the waiting list, disregarding the rules. The Supreme Court has ruled that a waiting list can only be used to recruit for the position for which it’s created. If there are more vacancies for the same position, they must be advertised anew. Rai told Newslaundry it was imperative that IIT Guwahati followed the law of the land when it came to employment. In particular, he said, it must follow Article 16 of India’s constitution which guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment.