The head of Karnataka’s premier technical education umbrella institution, Visvesvaraya Technical University (VTU), failed in seven of the ten semesters of his undergraduate degree course in mechanical engineering.



He finally managed to pass the course, but only after many attempts, adding up to a total of 25 marks sheets. He now heads a university which has 200 engineering colleges functioning under it. And the High Court is looking at his claims that he passed in first class. The stack of marks statements of his shows that he passed only 3 semesters of the 10 without failing in any subject, making repeated attempts to pass some of the papers in the rest of the semesters. He could pass two subjects of the seventh semester only after he passed the 9th and 10th semesters.



While Maheshappa completed semesters nine and ten in 1982, he reappeared for two subjects of the seventh semester – machine design I and estimating, specification and engineering economics – in March 1983. In the ninth semester too he failed in two subjects – metrology and automatic control engineering – in Feb/March, 1982 and he cleared these papers along with the 10th semester.



Student at the Government BDT College of Engineering, Davangere affiliated to University of Mysore, Maheshappa obtained a post-graduate degree and doctorate from Bangalore University, where it was not mandatory to submit a degree certificate while seeking entry to a PG course or doctoral programme.



It is not mandatory for a person to have a first class degree to become a VC, but Maheshappa has been accused of making false claims before the search panel that selected him to head the VTU for three years from 2010. While he has claimed that he has a first class degree in BE, those who have filed a public interest litigation in the High Court have alleged that he has just a second class degree, and contrary to his claim did not guide any PhD student.



The University of Mysore, during 1980s, used award an engineering degree based on the scoring of the last two semesters. Maheshappa’s 10th semester marks card (August/September 1982) mentions that he obtained second class. He failed in two subjects and his total scoring was 393 out of 775.



He passed the subjects later. In the final semester, he secured 830 out of 1400. While the university awarded him second class going by the marks he had scored in the first attempt, he has claimed that after the second attempt he made in the 9th semester, the percentage crossed 60 per cent.



Copies of the marks cards, obtained under the RTI, show that the University seems to have committed an error in the column indicating ‘Total Marks’.



While the ‘Total Marks’ for the 9th semester was 775 in the statement of marks of Feb/March 1982, the same is shown as 770 in the final semester marks sheet, where both marks scored in 9th and 10th are mentioned.



The total scoring of two semesters stands at 830 out of 1400 (59.24 %). But it should be 830 out of 1425 (58.24%).



Maheshappa, in the CV submitted to the search committee, had stated that he had ‘guided’ four PhD students. But a document obtained under the RTI from VTU on January 5, 2012 has stated that no student has been awarded PhD under his guidance but he is only ‘guiding’ four students.



K Balaveera Reddy, two-time vice chancellor of VTU, told Deccan Herald: “Any university will go by the marks obtained by a student in the first attempt. The marks obtained by making subsequent attempts to clear a paper are not taken into consideration while declaring class or rank. In case of VTU, the last four semesters aggregate is taken into consideration for declaring class.”