The High Court on Thursday declared that Dhaka University’s decision of demoting Samia Rahman - a faculty of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism - on allegation of plagiarism in a research paper was illegal.
The High Court bench led by Justice Zafar Ahmed and Justice Md Akhtaruzzaman delivered the verdict after hearing a writ petition filed by Samia Rahman challenging the legality of the decision to downgrade her to the post of assistant professor from the post of associate professor.
The High Court also asked the DU authorities to reinstate Samia Rahman to the post of associate professor with all previous facilities.
On January 28, 2021, three Dhaka University faculty members including Samia Rahman were demoted as punishment over allegations of plagiarism in a research paper.
The other two demoted faculty members were Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan of the Department of Criminology and Muhammad Omor Faruq of the Department of Islamic History and Culture.
Omor Faruq, who was an assistant professor, was demoted to lecturer and his PhD degree was cancelled. Marjan, who was a lecturer, is currently on study leave.
Challenging the legality of the university’s decision, on August 31, 2021, Samia Rahman filed a writ petition with the High Court.
On September 5, 2021, the High Court issued a rule asking the government to explain why the demotion of Samia should not be declared illegal.
It also asked the DU Vice Chancellor and others involved to respond to the rule within four weeks and instructed them to submit all the documents against Samia within 21 days.
In December 2016, an eight paged article, “A New Dimension in Colonialism and Pop Culture: A Case Study of Cultural Imperialism” jointly authored by Samia and DU lecturer Syed Mahfuzul Haque Marzan was published in the DU Social Science Review Journal.
Later, Alex Martin, who introduced himself as an administrative assistant of Chicago Journal, sent a written complaint to the DU in 2017 claiming that the article was copied from Michel Foucault’s “The Subject and Power”.
Following the allegation, the DU authorities formed a probe body to look into the allegation on September 27, 2017. Later, the committee submitted a report to the authority in 2020 finding the accused guilty.
