Petitioner is assailing the order dated 09.02.2016 (Annexure-A) issued by second respondent and consequentially to quash the Decision No.2015/6.24 held in Syndicate Council Meeting dated 19.06.2015 (Annexure-S2) and Decision No.2016/1.19 in Syndicate Council Meeting dated 19.01.2016 (Annexure-W1).

2. Petitioner was recognized as Guide as per Regulation 4 of Ph.D Regulation, 2010. One Mr. Masih Ansari Dezfuly opted petitioner as a Guide for his Doctoral Program. Said Mr. Masih Ansari Dezfuly was permitted to research and his enrolment was confirmed. The student appeared before the Pre-Registration Colloquium Committee and said committee recommended for his registration work entitled “EFFECTS OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC FLOCCULANTS ON SUGARCANE JUICE CLARIFICATION : A COMPARATIVE STUDY”. On 23.09.2013, Colloquium Committee opined that, the Thesis and his research are satisfactory and recommended for evaluation of Thesis by examiners. Mr. Masih Ansari dezfuly’s research work was sent to Two external examiner’s and examiners appreciated the research however suggested some modification and on incorporation of modification, recommended the Thesis for acceptance of the award of Ph.D. Accordingly, incorporating the modifications as suggested by the external examiners evaluation, revised Thesis was submitted and Doctoral Committee certified that said Mr. Masih Ansari dezfuly has revised his Thesis very carefully as per the suggestions given by the examiners and recommended further for the award of Ph.D. In the meanwhile, one Dr. Thangamuthu had alleged plagiarism in the Journal and University had probed the plagiarism allegation by two experts namely Dr. Kabilan and Dr.NBL.Prasad.

3. The University vide its Syndicate Meeting dated 19.06.2015, annulled the registration of Mr. Masih Ansari dezfuly and suspended the Guideship of the petitioner for a period of 5 years. After suspension, issued show cause notice for which the petitioner sought certain documents. The University again in its meeting held on 09.01.2016 suspended the Guideship of petitioner for a period of 5 years. Petitioner submitted his explanation countering allegation of Dr. P. Thangamuthu and the observations of Dr. Kabilan and Dr.NBL.Prasad on 03.02.2016. Prior to the explanations/objections offered by the petitioner, order dated 09.01.2016 came to be passed suspending the Guideship of the petitioner for a period of 5 years and cancelled the registration of the student Mr. Masih Ansari Dezfuly. Hence, this writ petition.

4. The learned counsel Sri. T.S. Venkatesha, appearing for petitioner contends that there was no element of plagiarism in the Thesis submitted by the student under the Guideship of the petitioner. The complaint alleged by Dr. Thangamuthu as regards copying the extract which was published by him in the year 1984 in the 48th Annual Convention of Sugar Technologists’ Association of India and 2009 in Invention Intelligence, a by monthly published by the National Research and Development Corporation, New Delhi was hyperlinked with a citation referring to Dr. Thangamuthu’s work; It is clear from where the material was derived.

5. Secondly, it was contended that Clause-8.9 of the Ph.D Regulations, 2010 of the University of Mysore provides that the Registrar (Evaluation) shall affix a Seal with the University Emblem stating that the Thesis was accepted for the award of Ph.D degree as per 2010 Regulation and issue this copy to the candidate. After the notification is issued, the thesis will be hosted on the website and the same will be sent to Inflibnet, as prescribed by UGC. Clause 8.10 contemplates about plagiarism charges and subsequent actions. In terms of this clause, if the University receives complaint of plagiarism with sufficient evidence or if any examiner points out occurrence of plagiarism in the thesis, the thesis shall be sent to a subject expert selected by the Vice-Chancellor from the panel of experts forwarded by the BOS, to verify and ascertain