Appellate Division upholds HC verdict, terms Samia’s demotion illegal

The Appellate Division on Sunday (May 26) upheld the High Court verdict that declared illegal the demotion order of Dhaka University faculty Samia Rahman on charges of plagiarism.

A four-member appellate bench headed by senior judge M Enayetur Rahim of the Appellate Division rejected the appeal of DU as invalid.

Following a writ petition, Justice Zafar Ahmed and Justice Md Akhtaruzzaman of the HC declared Samia Rahman’s demotion order invalid on August 4, 2022.

Along with that, the court ordered that Samia be reinstated with all the facilities. 

In December 2016, an eight-page research paper entitled ‘A New Dimension of Colonialism and Pop Culture: A Case Study of Cultural Imperialism’ written jointly by Samia Rahman and Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan was published in the university’s “Social Science Review” journal.

It was then alleged that the paper copied almost five pages from an article titled “The Subject and Power” by French philosopher Michel Foucault published in 1982.

In September 2017, the University of Chicago Press informed Dhaka University authorities about this through a written complaint.

Later, on January 28, 2021, Dhaka University teacher Samia Rahman was demoted as punishment for research fraud. 

Later, on August 31, Samia Rahman was demoted from associate professor to assistant professor by the Dhaka University Syndicate.

Two other faculty members – Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan of the Department of Criminology and Muhammad Omor Faruq of the Department of Islamic History and Culture – were also demoted.