Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has cancelled the promotion of Abhaya Kumar Mohanty, father of Kendrapada MP Anubhav Mohanty, as an English Reader.
In a notification, the Higher Education Department on Thursday said the placement of Mohanty as Reader with effective from January 2, 1997, in the scale of pay Rs 12,000-420-18,300 has been cancelled.
Notably, the government in June had withdrawn extra pensionary benefits to him after a departmental inquiry had found that the Refresher Course certificate on the basis of which he was promoted as Reader in 1997, was fake.
Participation in two Refresher Courses of at least four weeks duration each was an eligibility criterion for placement in Reader grade.
In 2010, Mohanty filed a petition in the Orissa High Court for payment of his arrear salary as Reader in English at Kandarpur College and all service and pensionary benefits in the revised scale of pay.
The department had stopped his promotional arrear in 2009 following allegations about the forged Refresher Course certificate.
Mohanty contended that there was no need for him to undergo any training to avail the benefits since UGC in 2008 exempted college teachers, superannuating within three years, from attending these for placement/ promotion under Career Advancement Scheme.
The court had ordered verification of the allegation.
While rejecting his claim, the department pointed out the 13-year gap between his promotion to Reader grade in 1997 and his superannuation in 2010 and said the UGC circular was not applicable to him.
“The petitioner, being in a noble profession of that of a college teacher and bestowed with the onerous responsibility of shaping the future of young students, should not have resorted to such fraudulent means for self-gain; thus creating a bad example for
his students,” it added.
