Plagiarism Case Against Principal: No Action 10 Months After Varsity Probe; College Says It Is Yet To Receive Report

Little progress has been made in a case relating to alleged plagiarism by the principal of a Maharashtra college. Ulhasnagar’s Chandibai Himatlal Mansukhani College management has reportedly said that it is yet to receive a copy of the report, 10 months after a committee set up by Mumbai University claimed that 20 per cent of the text in a book written by the principal, Manju Lalwani Pathak, resembled a book authored by an American.

The Citizen Forum For Sanctity in Education System, an organisation run by Thane BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar, had complained to the university that the principal's book titled Retail Management (New Perspective), published by Universal Publishing House in 2015, was a plagiarised version of Rosemary Varley’s Retail Product Management.

Chancellor Vidyasagar Rao, following this, had set up a three-member committee to probe the matter. The committee comprised former K J Somaiya Science and Commerce College principal Dr Vijay Joshi, former CKT College principal Dr S T Gadade and faculty Smita Shukla of Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies.

The committee found that 80 per cent of the text of Pathak’s book was plagiarised from Varley’s book. Pathak, when summoned by the committee on 29 January 2018, had claimed that the published book was not what she had sent to the publisher for publishing.

She had also submitted another book to the university, which she claimed was the original manuscript. This, also published by the Universal Publishing House, had the same ISBN (International Standard Book Number) as that of the first version of the book.

However, Indian Express reported that this book, too, was found to have 15 per cent to 20 per cent plagiarised content, but, however, acknowledged Varley’s contribution.