Foreigners Get Permanent Jobs

Mohammed Younus :

Defying nationality laws under the Indian Constitution as well as academic criteria, five foreign nationals have managed to get into permanent service and that too in a higher learning institution, and have continued in service for the past five years. The five foreign nationals are faculty members of various wings of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), holding top positions. A query raised under the Right to Information Act (RTI) revealed that these faculty members were appointed during the period 2007-2010, though four of them had mentioned their nationality as Indian.

Telangana RTI Forum president said that despite several representations to the university no action had been taken in this matter

Ironically, they all continue to hold their posts even as information about the discrepancy reached the Ministry of Human Resource Development more than a year ago. As per the information obtained under RTI, Dr S Naresh Babu (Biochemistry), Dr T Sarada Devi (Plant Sciences), Dr Mahadev Kalyankar (Medical Sciences) and Dr Vineet C P Nair (Computer Sciences) had wrongly mentioned their nationality as ‘Indian’, even though three of them enjoy the citizenship of USA and another Australian.

The fifth one, Dr Jagan Pongubala, also a citizen of USA, however, did mention his real nationality. Interestingly, the Registrar wrote a letter to the HRD Ministry in June 2014 mentioning that the University had noticed that the faculty members were having OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India), but were appointed on a permanent basis. The letter further mentions that the UGC rule position on this with regard to Central Universities is that such faculty members can be employed only for a short period.

However, Telangana RTI Forum president G Tirupathi Yadav, who obtained this information, said that despite several representations to the university authorities no action had been taken in this matter. There were several other irregularities in the university, he said and stressed the need for a CBI enquiry into all the appointments made during the past few years. The Vice Chancellor and other authorities had allegedly shown helplessness in taking action against the ‘fake Indian nationals’, citing various reasons.

It was a clear case of fraud and breach of citizenship laws, he maintained and reiterated that his forum would lodge a complaint with the HRD ministry. Legal expert and PG College of Law principal Gali Vinod Kumar said that foreign nationals could not be given a permanent job in India until and unless they acquired Indian nationality. “We do not have any constitutional provision of dual citizenship as of now. However, in some cases NRIs and OCIs are given facilities of one-time clearance to attract them for business and investment in India.”

As per the DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) guidelines, “Appointment of non-Indians to civil posts under the Government of India should be made only in very exceptional circumstances for short periods, in fields where Indian experts are not available. Such appointments would be on contract.”