In India, even Presidential documents can be tampered with

Signs don’t match - Discrepancy in letters on IIT director (28.12.08)

New Delhi, Dec. 28: The presidential approval for M.S. Ananth’s reappointment as IIT Madras director appears to have been tampered with before being released under the Right to Information Act, casting fresh doubts on an appointment already under legal scrutiny.
Copies of the approval letters, provided by the human resource development (HRD) ministry and the President’s secretariat, carry different signatures, indicating that only one of the two can be authentic (see graphic in the link). Ananth’s reappointment for a second term as IIT director last year was set aside by Madras High Court last week on the ground that the appointment process violated the IIT Act. This was the first time a court had set aside the appointment of an IIT director.
A review petition against the order is expected to be filed this week on behalf of the ministry.
But discrepancies between the approval letters provided by the ministry and the President’s secretariat suggest foul play, said the appellant before the court, E. Muralidharan.
Both approval letters carry the same text and are signed over the name of Barun Mitra, joint secretary in the secretariat. But the signatures differ.
Mitra, asked which was the original document, refused to explain the discrepancy. “I do not need to explain anything to you. These are official documents and I will only respond if I am asked officially,” he said.
Once official documents are released under the RTI Act, however, they become public documents.
In both letters, the presidential approval is dated June 28, 2007, when A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was President. The President’s approval to all director appointments in the IITs is mandatory since, as Visitor to the institutes, he is their highest authority.
“The question is not merely about identifying the original document. The larger question is: who tampered with a presidential approval and why,” Muralidharan said.