Recruitment Scam at JNU Unearthed
Alok Rajput | 07 August 2026 | The Reporter’s Collective
New Delhi: When Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit took charge as Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in February 2022, she promised to focus on academic merit for over 350 appointments. Four years later, documents reviewed by The Reporters’ Collective tell a different story.
Since her appointment, JNU has recruited at least five associate professors and two professors in violation of the regulations mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex body for higher education. The Collective’s investigation has unearthed a recruitment scam at the university, and at the heart of this is JNU’s own credential-verification body, the Internal Quality Assurance Cell, or IQAC. We found that the screening committee of subject experts for faculty appointments rejected these candidates at first. They were brought back into contention anyway by the IQAC. In at least seven cases, shortlists drawn up by subject experts were silently expanded to include favoured candidates.
The irregularities matter because JNU is not an ordinary university. Ranked second in the country, it sets quality benchmarks for higher education and has produced several prominent public figures, including current cabinet ministers. Until recently, its IQAC was the nodal body for verifying quality of research papers across north India.
Professors The Collective spoke to alleged shortlists were manipulated and that Executive Council meetings were steamrolled to push through appointments. Elected members of the same council registered their dissent and flagged violations in writing. But in each case, the candidate was appointed regardless.