The Chairperson of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bhushan Patwardhan, has resigned from his position in order to uphold "the sanctity of the post." This decision follows his recent accusations that universities were engaging in unfair practices to obtain dubious grades.

On Sunday, March 5 night, Bhushan Patwardhan wrote a letter to the University Grants Commission M Jagadesh Kumar Chairman stating that he was resigning from his post. He wrote in the letter, "After careful reconsideration of the entire subject, I hereby resign from the position of Chairman of the Executive Committee, NAAC, Bengaluru in the larger interest of the UGC, NAAC, and Indian higher education system." 

"I wish to reiterate that I had nothing personal in this matter but it was an act to safeguard self-respect and the sanctity of the post of chairman EC and the NAAC," he added stated a report by PTI.

NAAC is an autonomous body under the UGC that assesses and certifies higher educational institutions with gradings as part of accreditation. Patwardhan last week demanded an "independent inquiry" into UGC's move to appoint an "additional chairman without any legal authority."

Patwardhan alleged that "vested interests and malpractices" led to some higher educational institutes obtaining "questionable grades" in another letter addressed to the Chairman of UGC. He also expressed his "intent to resign" owing to the same reason in the latter and UGC has not commented on the subject, as reported by PTI.