Thiruvananthapuram/Pathanamthitta: University appointments have been under a cloud over nepotism charges and political interference with the authorities often misusing the recruitment interviews to inflate the marks of the favoured candidates.
In a bid to curb such unfair practices, the Kerala State Information Commission has ordered the details of marks awarded for different segments should be separately specified and entered while preparing the score sheet in university interviews and the same should be made available to candidates when requested.
The universities should take special care to ensure that the proceedings of awarding marks by the interview boards to candidates remain transparent. When marks are awarded by collating the performance of a candidate in different segments, the candidate has the right to know how he/she fared in each segment.
The State Information Commissioner A A Hakeem said the move comes as part of settling the petition of Pathanamthitta native Dr Srivrinda Nair, who sought the details of the marks awarded to her by the screening committee and interview board in the appointment to the professor, associate professor posts at the School of Pedagogical Sciences of Mahatma Gandhi University.
The screening committee disqualified 12 out of a total of 14 persons who applied. The interview board, which considered two of them, recorded the combined marks in different sectors. The Commission said it was inappropriate not to note their separate marks in the score sheet.
The Commission summoned persons, including Mahatma Gandhi University Pro-Vice-Chancellor, to Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram and took evidence three times. The Commission also found that the same persons except one figured in the interview board and screening committee.
