Revision summary
Two well-connected students were caught with a senior lecturer’s help; management wants the flying squad managed at any cost. Ethical issues are academic integrity, conflict of interest, justice to honest candidates, and the right to protest for fairness. Burying, a fake internal warning, and a mob leak all fail. The Vice Principal should keep the report, recuse from promotion bargaining, run university process, and protect peaceful protest. Empathy does not mean a pass mark.
Model answer
Introduction
Cheating with a lecturer’s help is not a public-relations event. It is an attack on every honest examinee. Burying the flying-squad report for a principal’s chair is not a solution. The politician and the donor are conflicts of interest, not vetoes. Protestors asking for fairness are not a riot to be managed with a lie.
Body
Stakeholders
- You as Vice Principal, and your possible promotion.
- The two students, the senior lecturer, and every other candidate in the examination.
- The university flying squad and the affiliating university.
- Management, the politician of affiliation, and the donor.
- Student-union protestors and the town’s faith in the degree.
- Parents who paid fees for a real examination.
(a) Ethical issues
- Academic integrity versus a management order to make the catch disappear.
- Conflict of interest: your promotion is being traded against the truth of a red-handed case; the politician and donor are private stakes sitting on a public exam.
- Justice to honest students whose ranks will be stolen if these two scripts stand.
- The lecturer’s duty to the university; helping unfair means is professional misconduct, not mentoring.
- Image of the college: a short scandal is cheaper than a degree that employers later treat as a joke.
- Right to peaceful protest: students at the gate are demanding the rule the prospectus promised.
- Natural justice: the two students and the lecturer still get a hearing; they do not get a secret amnesty.
- Loyalty to management versus loyalty to the university’s examination regulations and to UGC-type norms on unfair means.
- Courage versus a career bargain dressed as “resolving at any cost”.
- Empathy for young men under family pressure does not extend to rewriting the flying-squad memo.
(b) Options and the course to adopt
- Option 1: Pressure the flying squad, lose the memo, promote the boys, and protect the lecturer.
- Merit: principalship may come; donors stay warm.
- Demerit: fraud, possible university de-affiliation later, and you are bought. Rejected.
- Option 2: Quiet internal “warning” with no university process, and ask protestors to disperse as a favour.
- Merit: looks like balance.
- Demerit: the official catch is still being buried; the next exam will be a market.
- Option 3: Leak names to the town before the university inquiry, to look tough.
- Merit: noise.
- Demerit: defamation risk, mob humiliation, and a ruined hearing.
- Option 4: Recuse from any promotion talk, keep the flying-squad report intact, let university process run against students and lecturer, inform management in writing that you will not bargain, protect protestors’ peaceful demand, and offer the two students only the defence the regulations allow.
- Merit: the degree remains a degree; your chair, if it comes, is clean.
- Demerit: you may not be Principal. That is the price of the post’s meaning.
- Adopt Option 4.
- Do not meet the flying squad as management’s fixer. Cooperate as the college’s honest officer: rooms, CCTV if any, seating plans, the lecturer’s presence.
- Send a written report to the Registrar and Controller of Examinations with copies you keep.
- Place the senior lecturer under the college’s and university’s misconduct procedure; he is not above it because he is close to management.
- Recuse from bargaining about your own promotion while this file is live. Tell management the hint itself is a conflict of interest.
- Student protest: allow peaceful assembly, no lathi for a fairness demand, no deal that the protest will stop if the memo vanishes.
- The two students: suspension from that paper or whatever the university regulations prescribe, after hearing; compassion can mean counselling, not a pass mark.
- If management orders you in writing to kill the case, refuse in writing. A Principal appointed as a reward for exam fraud is not a promotion; it is a captured chair.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD CATCH[Flying squad red-handed] --> KEEP[Report stands] KEEP --> UNI[University process] KEEP --> LEC[Lecturer misconduct] BURY[Kill memo for promotion] --> FRAUD[Captured degree] PROT[Peaceful protest] --> FAIR[Demand for fairness]
Conclusion
The flying-squad catch must stand. Students and lecturer go through university process. Management pressure and a promised principalship are conflicts to recuse from, not orders to obey. Protestors asking for fairness are allies of the exam, not a problem to be bought off.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Case study. An elevated corridor is being constructed to reduce traffic congestion in the capital of a particular state. You have been selected as project manager of this prestigious project on your professional competence and experience. The deadline is to complete the project in next two years by 20 June, 2021, since this project is to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister before the elections are announced in the second week of July 2021. While carrying out the surprise inspection by inspecting team, a minor crack was noticed in one of the piers of the elevated corridor possibly due to poor material used. You immediately informed the chief engineer and stopped further work. It was assessed by you that minimum three piers of the elevated corridor have to be demolished and reconstructed. But this process will delay the project minimum by four to six months. But the chief engineer overruled the observation of inspecting team on the ground that it was a minor crack which will not in any way impact the strength and durability of the bridge. He ordered you to overlook the observation of inspecting team and continue working with same speed and tempo. He informed you that the minister does not want any delay as he wants the chief Minister to inaugurate the elevated corridor before the elections are declared. Also informed you that the contractor is far relative of the minister and he wants him to finish the project. He also gave you hint that your further promotion as additional chief engineer is under consideration with the ministry. However, you strongly felt that the minor crack in the pier of the elevated corridor will adversely affect the health and life of the bridge and therefore it will be very dangerous not to repair the elevated corridor. - Under the given conditions, what are the options available to you as a project manager? - What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by the project manager? - What are the professional challenges likely to be faced by the project manager and his response to overcome such challenges? - What can be the consequences of overlooking the observation raised by the inspecting team?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q9). View answer →
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If the college loses the donor, will honest poverty justify a cover-up?
No. A college that sells an exam will lose more than a donation when the university or a court arrives. Raise funds lawfully; do not sell a script.
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Should you refuse the Principal’s post forever after this?
Refuse it as a bargain for this file. A later open selection, after the case is honestly decided, is a different story.
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Q12 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Ashok is Divisional Commissioner of one of the border districts of the North East State. A few years back, Military has taken over the neighbouring country after overthrowing the elected civil government. Civil war situation is prevailing in the country especially in last two years. However, internal situation further deteriorated due to rebel groups taking over control of certain populated areas near own border. Due to intense fight between military and rebel groups, civilian casualties has increased manifold in recent past. In the meantime, in one night Ashok got information from the local police guarding the border check post that there are about 200-250 people mainly women and children trying to cross over to our side of the border. There are also about 10 soldiers with their weapons in military uniform part of this group who wants to cross over. Women and Children are also crying and begging for help. A few of them are injured and bleeding profusely need immediate medical care. Ashok tried to contact Home Secretary of the State but failed to do so due to poor connectivity mainly due to inclement weather. (a) What are the options available with Ashok to cope with the situation?(b) What are the ethical and legal dilemmas being faced by Ashok?(c) Which of the options, do you think would be more appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why?(d) In the present situation, what are the extra precautionary measures to be taken by the Border Guarding Police in dealing with soldiers in uniform?
Ethics Case Studies
Options range from pushing everyone back to opening the gate to armed men; both extremes fail. The dilemma is non-refoulement and medical duty versus sovereignty and the risk of a ruse. The better path is triage and shelter for civilians, especially women and children, and separate internment of disarmed soldiers pending the Centre. Border police should keep distance, seal weapons, separate camps, and avoid humiliation or leaks. Waiting for a dead phone while a child bleeds is not caution; it is omission.
Q11 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, MGNREGA was earlier known as National Rural Employment Scheme, NREGA. It is an Indian Social Welfare Program that aimed at fulfilling the 'Right to Work' provisions made in the Constitution. MGNREGA was launched in 2006 under Rural Employment Sector by the Ministry of Rural Development. Main objective of the program is to give legal guarantee of wage employment to the adult members of rural households who are willing to do unskilled manual labour work subject to a maximum of 100 days per year for every household. Every rural household has the right to register under the scheme, job card is issued to the registered, Job Card holder can seek employment; State Government shall pay 25% of minimum wage for the first 30 days as compensatory daily unemployment allowance to the families and of wage for remaining period of the year. MGNREGA work was undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You have been appointed as an Administrator Incharge of the District. You have been given the responsibility of monitoring MGNREGA work undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You are also given the authority to give technical sanctions to all MGNREGA works. In one of the Panchayats in your jurisdiction, you notice that your predecessor has mismanaged the Program in terms of: (i) Money not disbursed to actual job-seekers.(ii) Muster Rolls of the Labourers not properly maintained.(iii) Mismatch between the work done and payments made.(iv) Payments made to fictitious persons.(v) Job Cards were given without looking into the need of person.(vi) Mismanagement of funds and to the extent of siphoning of funds.(vii) Approved works that never existed. (a) What is your reaction to the above situation and how do you restore the proper functioning of MGNREGA Program in this regard?(b) What actions would you initiate, to solve the various issues listed above?(c) How would you deal with the above situation?
Ethics Case Studies
The first duty is to protect records, tell workers the truth, and stop further theft. Arrears must reach real job-seekers while ghosts, fake works and siphoned funds go to vigilance and the police. Job cards should be re-verified without stripping genuine households. The predecessor deserves due process, not a media hanging or a cover-up. Social audit, geotagging and a public dashboard keep the repair from rotting again.
Q10 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Rajesh is a Group A officer with nine years of service. He is posted as Administrative Officer in an Oil Public Sector undertaking. As an Administrative Officer he is responsible for managing and coordinating various administrative tasks to ensure smooth functioning of office. He also manages office supplies, equipment etc. Rajesh is now sufficient senior and is expecting his next promotion in JAG (Junior Administrative Grade) in the next one or two years. He knows that promotion is based on examination of ACRs/Performance Appraisal of last few years (5 years or so) of an officer by a DPC (Departmental Promotion Committee) and an officer lacking requisite grading of ACRs may not be found fit for promotion. Consequences of losing promotion may entail financial and reputational loss and set-back for career progression. Though he also puts his best efforts in official discharge of his duties, yet he is unsure of assessment by his superior officer. He is now putting extra efforts so that he gets thumping report at the end of financial year. As Administrative Officer, Rajesh is regularly interacting with his immediate boss, who is his reporting officer for writing his ACR. One day he calls Rajesh and wants him to buy computer-related stationery on priority from a particular vendor. Rajesh instructs his office to initiate action for procuring these items. During the day, the dealing Assistant brings an estimate of Rupees Thirty Five Lakhs covering all stationery items from the same vendor. It is noticed that as per delegated financial powers, as provided in the GFR (General Financial Rules) as applicable in that Organisation, expenditure for office items exceeding Rupees Thirty Lakhs requires sanction of the next higher authority (boss in the present case). Rajesh knows that immediate superior would expect all these purchases should be done at his level and may not appreciate such lack of initiative on his part. During discussions with office, he learns that common practice of splitting of expenditure (where large order is divided into a series of smaller ones) is followed to avoid obtaining sanction from higher authority. This practice is against the rules and may come to the adverse notice of Audit. Rajesh is perturbed. He is unsure of taking decision in the matter. (a) What are the options available with Rajesh in the above situation?(b) What are the ethical issues involved in this case?(c) Which would be the most appropriate option for Rajesh and why?
Ethics Case Studies
Splitting ₹35 lakh into smaller bills to avoid the boss’s sanction is a GFR violation, even if it is a common trick. The ethical issues are career fear, a named vendor, and the habit of collective cheating. Rajesh’s options include splitting, lawful phasing, written illegal orders, or a proper sanction. The right choice is a single proposal to the competent authority and a competitive purchase. A promotion that needs a false indent is not worth the integrity it costs.
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