IIM-Rohtak Director’s ‘Refuses’ to Provide his Bachelor’s Degree to Govt

Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Rohtak director Dheeraj Sharma has still not provided a copy of his undergraduate degree to the education ministry even as his five-year term ends after five months. According to records seen by The Indian Express, the ministry wrote a letter to Sharma on February 18 and sent a reminder on June 28 asking for a copy of his degree.

The controversy about his Bachelor’s degree arose in January 2019 when a Right to Information activist and a Delhi-based lawyer challenged Sharma’s appointment in a petition filed with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He had refused to provide his original degrees, including Bachelor’s, Master’s and MBA, to both IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Rohtak and the HRD ministry, according to the petition, whose copy was available with ThePrint in March last year.

“Sharma completed BCom in the year 1998 from Delhi University. But as per the MBA certificate, in 1998, he was studying in the second year of his full-time MBA course in Dr B R Ambedkar University, Agra, and joined the MBA Programme in 1997, even before completing his BCom degree from Delhi University,” the petition had alleged.

Surprisingly, the education ministry has copies of Sharma’s MBA degree (from Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University) and PhD degree (from Louisiana Tech University, US) but not his undergraduate degree. 

Before being appointed director on February 10, 2017, Sharma was a professor at IIM-Ahmedabad. The petition had also alleged that he didn’t have the requisite work experience to hold the post. His promotion as professor in IIM-A too was flawed because he hadn’t completed the required 10 years of teaching, the petition further alleged.

“Details of experience furnished by Sharma in his CV make it evident that in 2014, at the time of his promotion at IIM-A, he had not completed four years experience as associate professor at IIM-A or any other institute and that makes him ineligible for post of professor,” the petition states.

In February, the government filed an affidavit defending Sharma’s appointment by submitting copies of his MBA and PhD degrees but not his undergraduate degree.

Neither Sharma nor the education ministry responded to questions asked by The Indian Express. However, Louisiana Tech University legal counsel Justin Kavalir told the newspaper in an email reply that Sharma had submitted proof of his Bachelor’s degree while seeking admission to the PhD programme. “Due to record retention, copies for this student would not be kept any longer. If we did, they would not be released,” he wrote in an email reply.