Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday formed a seven-member expert committee to formulate a guideline in order to prevent plagiarism in higher education research including PhD thesis in all public universities across the country.
The High Court bench of Justice J B M Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil formed the committee after hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard.
The committee has been asked to submit a draft of the guideline to the HC in three months.
Former University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Prof Abdul Mannan has been made chief of the committee.
The other members of the committee are- former DU vice-chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique; former teacher of Sylhet Science and Technology University Prof Zafar Iqbal; Chairperson of computer science and technology of DU Prof Saifuddin Md Tareeq, Teachers of law department of DU Prof Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah, and Prof Mahbuba Naznin and Professor Mostofa Akbar from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
The UGC has been asked to provide necessary assistance to the committee, said Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the state.
Advocate Md Moniruzzaman, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ petition with the High Court on January 22 in 2020 attaching a newspaper report published under the banner of “98 percent plagiarism in DU teacher’s PhD thesis”.
Lawyer Md Moniruzzaman said, “Complying with the court order, Dhaka University submitted a draft policy on May 29 this year. I raised question about that policy at the hearing. Then the court asked me to submit the name of some experts to form a committee to formulate the policy. I suggest seven names. The court has formed the committee with them.”
