An Enquiry Commission Report: The Gajendragadkar Report on ICAR, 1972

This post contains the Cover Page and the first chapter of the report

Report of the I.C.A.R. Enquiry Committee

Headed by

Dr. P. B. Gajendragadkar

(Abridged and Annotated)

Reproduced from the book ‘Self-Immolation of a Scientist – A Memoir of Dr. Vinod H Shah’

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The Union Government issued a notification on the 27th June 1972, announcing their decision "to set up a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of a retir­ed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and consisting of distinguished leaders of science and education as members to inquire into the recruitment policies of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research with effect from 1st July 1972, for a period of about six months." The terms of reference prescribed for the inquiry by the Committee were as follows:

(i) To examine the statements and incidents mention­ed by Dr. Shah in the letter of May 5, 1972 addressed by him to the Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, before Dr. Shah committed suicide.

(ii) To review the recruitment and personnel policies of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Institutes and Centres working under it, and to suggest measures for their improvement.

(iii) To consider any other relevant matters which, in opinion of the Committee, would help it to make effective recommendations.

It would be noticed that, in this notification, the names of persons composing the Inquiry Committee had not been mentioned; that was done by the notification issued on the 10th of July 1972, which announced the composition of the Committee consisting of five members.

At the suggestion of the Chairman, the Minister for Food & Agriculture requested Dr. K. L. Shrimali, Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University, to lend to the Committee the services of Prof. M. S. Kanungo, Professor of Zoology, to work as Member-Secretary of the Committee and the Vice-Chancellor was good enough to agree. Thereupon, Prof. M. S. Kanungo joined as Member-Secretary of the Committee on 24th July, 1972 and thus the Committee consisted of six members.

Shri P. B. Gajendragadkar	retired Chief Justice of India and Vice-Chancellor University of Bombay; Chairman Law Commission.	Chairman.
Prof. D. S. Kothari	Chairman, University Grants Commission.	Member
Prof. B. D. Nag Chaudhuri	Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence.	Member
Shri H. N. Sethna	Chairman Atomic Energy Commission Trombay Bombay.	Member
Prof. M. S. Kanungo.	Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University.	Member-Secretary

The Minister accepted the request of the Chairman to make available to the Committee the services of Mr. K. K. Bhatnagar, Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, who had an academic background before he joined the I.A.S. He joined the Committee on the 24th July, 1972, as Deputy Secretary.

At the third meeting of the Committee held on Septem­ber 16, 1972, it was resolved that a Panel of Advisers should be appointed consisting of the following persons:-

1. Dr. V. M. Dandekar, Director, Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Poona.	Chairman
2. Dr. L. S. Negi, Vice-Chancellor, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat.	Member
3. Dr. J. S. Patel, Chairman, Achievement Audit Committee, IARI, Pusa, New Delhi.	Member
4. Dr. C. R. Rao, Director, Indian Statistical Institute New Delhi.	Member

The first meeting was held on 24th July, 1972. The total number of witnesses examined during the course of the inquiry was 187. The Committee issued a questionnaire which was replied to by 2667 persons. The Committee paid 2 visits to the IARI to have informal discussions with groups of scientists working there. The Committee also visited other institutions (vide Table below):

Visit of the Committee to Different Institutes

Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi	29th August, 1972	Dr.P.B Gajendragadkar Dr. D.S. Kothari Prof. Nagchoudhuri Prof. M.S. Kanungo
—do-	20th October, 1972	Dr. P.B. Gajendragadkar Prof. M.S. Kanungo
Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack.	27th September, 1972	Prof. M.S. Kanungo
Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Calcutta	29th September, 1972	Prof. M.S. Kanungo
Cotton Technological Research Laboratory, Bombay	12th-18th Oct 1972	Dr. P.B. Gajendragadkar Prof. B.D. Nagchoudhuri Shri B. Venkatappiah
Jute Agricultural Research Institute, Calcutta	. 23rd & 24th Oct., 1972	Shri B. Venkatappiah
Jute Technological Research Laboratory, Calcutta.	25th & 26th Oct., 1972	Shri B. Venkatappiah
National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.	6th November, 1972	Prof. B.D. Nagchoudhuri Prof. M.S. Kanungo

The Committee scrutinized a large number of representa­tions alleging that irregularities had been committed in the past in making several appointments. These along with the 879 files received from the ICAR, containing proceedings of selection committees constituted by the ICAR for recruit­ment to scientific and technical posts of Glass I category, were examined to find out the general defects in the exist­ing system of recruitment. In all, the Committee held 53 meetings. It submitted its report well in time, "earlier than, six months from the 24th July, 1972".