The High Court on Sunday formed a seven-member expert committee to formulate a guideline to prevent plagiarism in PhD thesis.

The committee has been asked to submit the guideline within the next three months.

Bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razilk Al Jalil passed the order during a hearing on a writ petition in this regard.

The members of the committee includes, educationist Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, former Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University (DU) Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique, Chairman of Computer Science department of DU Prof Saifuddin Md Tareeq, DU Law department Prof Dr Nakib Mohammad Nasrullah, former chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) Prof Abdul Mannan,  Prof Dr Mahmuda Naznin, head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (Buet), Prof Dr Md Mostofa Akbar of the same department.

Also read: HC asks UGC to submit report on PhD degree-awarding process

Advocate Md  Moniruzzaman Linkon appeared for the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state during the hearing.

UGC has been asked to provide necessary assistance to the newly formed committee to formulate the guideline said DAG Tushar Kanti Roy.

On January 26, 2020, advocate Md Moniruzzaman Linkon submitted the petition based on a report published on a vernacular daily’s online version.

The report published on January 21, that year said 98 per cent of thesis  conducted by DU Assistant Professor Abul Kalam Lutful Kabir of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology was plagiarized.

On February 4, this year court wanted to know whether the public and private universities approve PhD and equivalent degrees following proper law and asked DU to investigate the plagiarism issue of Prof Lutful Kabir.

Also read: DU demotes 3 teachers for plagiarism

Besides the court issued a rule questioning why technology should not be used to check plagiarism in thesis before giving PhD degree approval. The court also questioned why an order should not be given to take measures to stop this crime.