Al-Falah blames ‘oversight’ for false NAAC accreditation

NAAC’s notice to Al-Falah came two days after investigators linked several doctors at the Al-Falah Medical College to the Red Fort blast.

Faridabad’s Al-Falah University – under scrutiny after investigators linked members of its medical college to the November 10 Red Fort blast – has submitted its reply to the show-cause notice issued by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) on November 12, two senior officials from the accreditation body said on Friday.

The Al-Falah university said it was “apologetic” and informed NAAC that the misleading claims have now been removed. (HT Photo/ Parveen Kumar)

According to the officials, the university acknowledged that the outdated accreditation claims on its website were the result of “oversight,” “website-design errors,” and “unintentional lapses.” The university, they said, was “apologetic” and informed NAAC that the misleading claims have now been removed. No further action is currently being contemplated. The officials added that, in the wake of the Al-Falah case, NAAC has issued notices to around 25 other institutions found displaying expired accreditation grades, directing them to take down such information.

NAAC’s notice to Al-Falah University came two days after investigators linked several doctors at the Al-Falah Medical College to the Red Fort blast that killed at least 12 people. The accreditation body had flagged the university for displaying “absolutely wrong and misleading” information — including an “A Grade” for its engineering college from 2013 and accreditation for its teacher education school from 2011, even though NAAC accreditation is valid for only five years. The notice directed the university to remove all false claims, file a compliance report, and respond within seven days.

A second official noted that the university’s explanation “was not entirely straightforward.” According to him, the university blamed old webpages that were overlooked and said a staff member had failed to remove outdated content. “They were apologetic and insisted it was not intentional,” he said. He also pointed out the difficulty of monitoring thousands of institutions manually, especially when expired claims are tucked away in inner webpages.

The officials said the notices issued to 25 other institutions were part of a broader NAAC policy push to ensure transparency and compliance in the way accreditation status is displayed. NAAC has repeatedly warned institutions about misrepresenting their accreditation grade. In a “cautionary note” issued in March 2018, it said that displaying outdated or false accreditation information amounted to “misleading stakeholders” and made institutions “liable to face stringent action.”

The scrutiny of Al-Falah University has widened beyond accreditation lapses. On November 18, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, chairman of the Al-Falah group, in connection with its money laundering case linked to alleged fraudulent claims of accreditation and financial irregularities. The Association of Indian Universities has already revoked its membership. The National Medical Commission also removed four doctors — Muzaffar Ahmad Rather, Adeel Ahmad Rather, Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie and Shaheen Shahid — from its medical register after they were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged role in the Red Fort blast.

Earlier, on November 12, vice-chancellor Bhupinder Kaur had issued a statement distancing the university from the arrested doctors, saying the institution had “no connection” with them apart from their work in their official capacity.