How did G S Rawat Ph D degree?

It’s a strange case of principal giving full marks to himself and getting the qualification degree to become the principal. The strange distinction goes to G S Rawat, who awarded a doctorate degree to himself by the institute when he was heading it.
G S Rawat, now Ph.D, got the highest degree when he was working as the director of Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, one of the premier forestry research institutes of the country.
Rawat, an Indian Forest Service officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, practically made Research Degree Committee (RDC) of FRI Deemed University a rubber stamp body to award the Ph. D degree to himself when he was also the vice chancellor of the Deemed university.
Interestingly, Rawat was earlier enrolled to pursue Ph D programme on ‘Studies on the chemical nature of Celtis austris Linn’ with reference to its socio-economic importance in the north-west Himalaya. He later changed his previous topic to ‘Exploration of Borehole method of resin tapping in Pinus roxburghii sarg’ after three years of his registration when he failed to submit thesis on the previous topic. The topic guide was obliviously a junior to Rawat who was the authority to review his annual confidential report. Within a few days of submission of the thesis, Rawat got the Ph. D in the year 2002.
According to the Doctor of Philosophy Ordinance, RDC headed by the director and VC of the institute take the decision for awarding of Ph D degree to a candidate.
The Pandora Box opened when Delhi activist Krishan Kapoor reported the matter to the the Ministry of Human Resource Development which asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to examine the issue. Kumar approached the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who wrote to the then HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi to probe the matter.
Kapoor says the Rawat’s case has crossed “all limits of morality, misuse of official power to achieve personal goals”. “For the first time in the history of any country, a student was made a vice chancellor of the same university where he is himself was enrolled as a student pursuing his Ph D degree at the same time.”
Rawat registered as a Ph D scholar at the FRI deemed university when he was heading one of the branches of FRI. In 2000, he was elevated to the post of director and head of the deemed university. The supervisor was his junior. On March 23, 2002, Rawat at the 2nd Convocation ceremony of the university. On June 10, an examiner conducted a viva voce of Rawat. One June 13, the recommendations of the examiners, of which Rawat was heading as VC, was accepted by the RDC. On June 14, Rawat’s deputation ended with the FRI.
Since then the matter has been hanging and now Rawat has become the director general of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), the organization that controls the FRI.
After examining the case, MoEF wrote a letter (1-6/2002RT) on February 2, 2004, to the director general of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) to reevaluate the thesis submitted by Rawat by a fresh panel of examiners.
The then DG, also from the Tamil Nadu cadre, called a special meeting of the Board of Management (BoM) of FRI to discuss the directives of MoEF and on October 18, 2004, resolved to shut the case. The BoM meet on November 18, 2005 authorised the DG of ICFRE requested the MoEF to guide further in the matter.
However, in 2010 the matter came up when a complaint was filed under RTI . No official was ready to come on record and go against senior official. However, President of the association of scientists of ICFRE Sudhir Kumar said the MoEF was aware of the matter.
Rawat said the move is “malign my character”. “This is a malicious campaign against me. I have nothing to do with it. I cleared my Ph D and was awarded a degree in 2005 when I was not even posted in FRI. I rejoined the ICFRE in 2006. The ministry is aware of the details and has cleared my name. I have changed the topic of the thesis and it is perfectly allowed to do so.”