Gauhati HC orders Super 30 founder to appear in person

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday directed Anand Kumar, founder of the popular Super 30 education programme, to appear in person before it on November 26 in connection with a PIL filed by four IIT-Guwahati students.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ajay Lamba and Justice A M Bujarbaruah said that if Kumar fails to appear, a bailable warrant will be issued against him.

Kumar's initiative selects 30 talented students each year from economically underprivileged sections and trains them for appearing for the JEE.

Amit Goyal, the counsel of the students, said Kumar had not replied to the charges made by them as directed by the court in its order dated September 21, 2018.

The four students had alleged that Kumar had not disclosed the names of the 26 students who he had claimed had qualified in the IIT entrance examination in 2018 from his Super 30 institute.

"Anand Kumar, who is claiming himself a 'mathematician' and (is) projecting himself as a 'masiha' (messiah) of poor IIT aspirants by giving manipulated and false results is misusing (the) simplicity of innocent IIT aspirants and their guardians," the petition said.

It also alleged that every year a number of students from different parts of the country approach Kumar as if he is an "IIT baba" who will help them in qualifying the entrance exam.

It further claimed that Kumar admits students in his coaching institute Ramanujam School of Mathematics by charging a huge amount of about Rs 33,000.

It also alleged that after 2008, Kumar is not running any of the "so-called" Super 30 classes.

Whenever IIT results are announced, Kumar appears before media along with some students of Ramanujam School of Mathematics and other students and claims that they are Super 30 students and have qualified in the IIT entrance exam, it said.

"The false propaganda created by Kumar is not only (aimed at) cheating the IIT aspirants and their guardians but also the common people of this country. It is relevant to mention herein that Kumar is not competent and qualified to teach IIT aspirants," the petitioners claimed.

They said that before 2008 there were visuals on the internet showing local journalists talking to the successful students and eliciting information from them. The reports and the visual media news sounded "quite authentic" because the successful students were presented before the media.

But such visuals and reports are "conspicuously missing" on the net after 2009, the petition said and maintained that there are "typical pictures" of Kumar climbing on the shoulders of successful students, while the reports indicate that no journalist could talk to these students.

"This indicates that post-2008 transparency in the process of 'Super 30' was lost," it said.

Another respondent in the PIL, Super 30 co-founder Abhiyanand in his reply filed before the high court had stated that "Anand Kumar had deficiencies in his mathematical thought process".

In an affidavit filed before the high court, Abhiyanand, a former Bihar director general of police, stated that it was he who had conceptualised the "noble programme" of Super 30 with the idea of solving the society's problems.

A Bollywood biopic of Kumar titled "Super 30" had hit the screens earlier this year.