Kannur: An academic watchdog group has accused Kannur University of tailoring an unprecedented "mercy chance" scheme to allow CPM leader M Swaraj's wife Saritha Menon T P to earn her PhD -- for which she registered 16 years ago, and abandoned the research.

The university's scheme involved charging a late fee of ₹1 lakh, followed by an additional ₹10,000 for a second extension, to allow Menon to submit her PhD thesis in May 2024.

The Save University Campaign Committee wrote to Governor and Chancellor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Saturday, June 14, urging a probe into what it called "grave procedural anomalies" and demanding that Menon's PhD be suspended pending inquiry.

When contacted, Menon said she followed the due process and took up the opportunity given by the university to complete her research, which got derailed because of various reasons, including health issues. This is being raked up now because Swaraj is contesting the Nilambur byelection, she said.

R S Sasikumar, chairman of the Save University Campaign Committee, said her "mercy chance" PhD should be seen in the light of the state government raising the upper age limit for the appointment of assistant professors in colleges and universities to 50 years from 40 in April 2023. "She is 48 now," he said.

He said they sought the Governor's intervention because it was hard to believe her PhD research done 16 years ago was still relevant. "Mind you, she did not re-register for the course. She was allowed to revive non-existent research on a topic picked 16 years ago," he alleged.

Documents released by the whistleblowers show Menon earned an MBA from the University of Kerala in August 2001. In October 2008, she registered for a part-time PhD at SN College, Kannur, and selected her guide as Dr V Mukunda Das, Dean of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Thiruvananthapuram. But Dr Das retired in 2011 and her research came to a halt.

On July 4, 2023, Kannur University Syndicate, led by the then V-C Prof Gopinath Ravindran came up with a "mercy chance" to PhD scholars who did not submit their theses within the stipulated time. On August 3, 2023, Kannur University put out an order saying the late fine would be ₹1 lakh.

On November 30, 2023, the Supreme Court quashed the reappointment of Prof Ravindran as V-C because of the state government's interference.

On December 12, 2023, the university syndicate, headed by V-C in charge Prof S Bijoy, resolved to extend the submission date to July 31, 2024, by charging an additional fee of ₹10,000.

Menon paid the fees in December 2023 and April 2024, submitted her thesis in May 2024, and was awarded her doctorate in November of the same year after an online open defence.
University registrar Prof Joby K Jose said the scheme was not designed for any particular person, and many scholars, who could not submit their theses on time, availed the window. He, however, did not give the number of beneficiaries of the mercy scheme.

Saritha Menon, who spent years in the corporate sector as a senior HR professional, denied any wrongdoing. She said her PhD journey had been disrupted by personal and health issues, and she took the university's window to finish what she had started. "I followed the due process. This controversy is surfacing only because my husband is contesting the Nilambur byelection," she told Onmanorama.

On her topic and research, she said she updated her research before submission. "Of course, I reworked my research. It was current and relevant. It was about completing something I began out of passion," she said.

Menon laughed at the allegation that she was seeking a government job. "I never intended to seek a teaching job. I've never even applied for a government job nor am I interested. I left a good corporate role two years ago to pursue something of my own," she said. But Sasikumar is not convinced. He has asked the Chancellor to order an audit of all PhD degrees awarded by Kannur University in the past 10 years.

The CPM’s tangled run-ins with PhD degrees is not new. Party leader Chintha Jerome became the butt of a meme fest after she wrongly attributed Changampuzha Krishna Pillai’s poem 'Vazhakkula' to Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon in her thesis. While she brushed it off as an oversight, the Save University Campaign Committee had claimed the error was lifted from an article on Bodhi Commons and demanded a review of her work.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s additional private secretary, Ratheesh Kaliyadan, faces a graver charge -- that his PhD thesis submitted to Assam University is “almost entirely copied” from another scholar Rajesh RV's work submitted to Mysore University. Meanwhile, CPM leader Shahida Kamal’s doctorate from an open university in Sri Lanka also came under scrutiny after allegations that it was acquired for the Dr prefix, without meeting proper academic standards.