Nithyananda ashram case: Have not submitted NoC to central board

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Nov 28, 2019: The Delhi Public School in East Ahmedabad, which ran into trouble recently over allowing self-styled guru Nithyananda to run an ashram from its premises, has denied producing a No-Objection Certificate to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to which the school is affiliated to.

In its written submission to the state education department, the school said NoC was not submitted for affiliation. “In an e-mail to the education department, the school has stated that they have not produced an NoC to CBSE. There are serious inconsistencies in the statements by the school. Now it is with the CBSE to verify the NoC that has been submitted by them for affiliation, which calls for criminal proceedings against the school,” said Vinod Rao, Secretary Education, IndianExpress reported.

 

The CBSE, in its letter to the education department on November 21, said that NoC of the state government “MSB-1210-1965-CHH dated 27-07-2010” was produced by the school.

The state education department had mentioned that it had not issued an NoC to the school. Based on its findings, the Gujarat education department requested the CBSE to cancel the affiliation of Delhi Public School, East Ahmedabad, citing “gross violations and suspecting criminal misrepresentation and forgery”.

“From all the above facts, it is evident that the No Objection Certificate of the State Government vide MSB-1210-1965-CHH dated 27-07-2010 referred in the letter of Secretary, CBSE dated 21-11-2019 was never issued by the Education Department of the State Government. Prima facie it is a case of criminal misrepresentation, forgery and fraud,” the report prepared by the education department on November 22 stated.

The school authorities told the education department on Monday that they would submit the requested documents. The school did not adhere to the department’s requests of producing documents since November 16 and even kept the department waiting for the entire day on November 22 when they said that they would depose before the department at 3 pm.

The education department has asked for the authenticated copy of the NoC from CBSE that was submitted by DPS. So far, the department has not received it. “Since a document claimed to have been issued by the education department has been wrongly produced to the CBSE, we have requested for an authenticated copy of the said document so that appropriate legal action can be initiated for criminal misrepresentation and forgery,” the inquiry report stated.

The education department’s inquiry also highlighted that “in the proforma attached with the letter dated 21-09-2011 by Delhi Public School East, Ahmedabad to the District Education Officer, Ahmedabad Rural, against the question as to whether NoC has been issued by the State Government for affiliation of the School with CBSE, the applicant replied as ‘No, Not Applicable’.”

The inquiry was initiated by the education department on November 16 after a case filed by Tamil Nadu-based Janardhan Sharma alleging that the ashram had kept his children in “illegal confinement”. On November 21 the CBSE directed the Gujarat education department to inquire into the matter of leasing out the land of DPS Maninagar, Mehmd-abad Road, Hirapur, Ahmedabad to Nithyananda ashram without permission of the board.

Spread across a 10 acres, DPS, East Ahmedabad, a member of the Delhi Public School Society running since 2008, has an enrollment of nearly 850 students.

Collector told to probe

The Education Department has requested the District Collector to investigate into the land title of DPS, East Ahmedabad. “In its letter to Collector Vikrant Pandey on Wednesday, the education department has requested to get the entire land title to be investigated through revenue records,” said Secretary Education, Vinod Rao. After preliminary inspection, it came to light that out of total five survey numbers of the land of the school, three have been issued the non-agricultural (NA) use permission while it is missing in remaining two. Also, the school has not applied for NA as the revenue title of the land was not approved.