The allegations of faculty recruitment malfeasance have come to haunt the Jawaharlal Nehru University once again. In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, the faculty of the university's School of Physical Sciences have accused the administration of recruiting seven unqualified or underqualified faculty.

They have also requested him to intervene in the matter in his capacity as the JNU visitor. "During faculty recruitment, each post requires a separate screening committee whose members are either experts in the area of specialisation mentioned in the advertisement or have a broad enough command of the subject," reads the letter which goes on to explain that these technical duties cannot be performed by non-experts. However, they illustrate seven instances here where the process was allegedly not followed.

In one such instance, they talk about how a CSIR recommended Bhatnagar prize-winning candidate was disregarded and instead, somebody with a few years of experience was appointed as a professor. In another case, during the process of interviewing potential Associate Professors, allegedly, at least 10 candidates with PhDs from prestigious institutes across the world were sidelined to offer the position to a local teacher with insignificant research contribution.

 "The message that performance on the job is not the determining factor for career advancement will thoroughly demoralise our younger colleagues and push them towards a state of premature unproductiveness," reads the letter. "Such facts will dissuade brilliant young people from even considering a career in research and academics," it says.