Timeline of Grievance Events
8 major incidents detailing conflict and consequences from April to Dec 2022, leading to failure of my PhD submission.
HoD Salary Issue
April 2022
- I requested Dr. P. S. Bedi (Pharma Prof), an RSS member in Punjab and temporary HoD of Physiotherapy, to sign the part-time salary bill on time, as he never does it on time.
- This request for salary on time was immediately met with a conflict, as Dr. Bedi cut the call and blocked my phone number.
Getting blocked on my 2nd Phone No.
May 2022
- Next month I contacted Dr. Bedi again about the timely sign-on bill, telling him I needed to pay EMI.
- I said that if the salary didn’t come on time, then I would have to pay a 500 penalty for the EMI delay and also have to start private coaching instead of giving my time in university.
- Dr. Bedi responded by cutting the call, blocking my 2nd phone number.
Lectures Blocked
Immediately After Bedi’s call disconnected (May 2022)
- Following the confrontation over timely salary, my “Drug Abuse” lecture, run by the Sociology Dept., was cancelled by their HoD, Dr. Rajesh.
- Simultaneously, my own professor cancelled a Psychology paper lecture that I used to teach in Physiotherapy department.
- My teaching duties across multiple departments were abruptly halted immediately after the salary dispute.
University Conference
May 2022 (Initial Arrangement)
- My prof, Dr Gupta, asked me to cancel my startup’s conference that was fixed with the psychology dept. by her for the NAAC rank purposes without taking anything from the university.
- She stated the university’s non-interest in the event after initial arrangements had been made (purportedly for NAAC accreditation purposes).
- I consulted the conference participants, who unanimously requested a postponement rather than a full cancellation of the event.
Verbal Abuse & Bank Demand
September 2022 (One month after Virtual Conference)
- Despite the conflict, I proceeded with the conference in Sep 2022, which Dr. Gupta attended before later confronting me.
- Dr. Gupta called me one month after the event, engaging in severe VERBAL ABUSE and falsely claiming the conference was “BOGUS”.
- She escalated the conflict by demanding to see my startup’s bank passbook, implying illegal profit from the conference and mentioning the VC/Dean asked for it.
Response to Demand
Consequence (Post-Sept 2022)
- Then I wrote a detailed email stating I possessed a “Permission letter” for the conference confirming no financial burden on GNDU, so how can VC and Dean ask for my passbook? Being a part-time PhD and having given training in multiple universities, I was not poor with skills that I couldn’t hold a conference?
- Since no funds or contacts were solicited, I concluded Dr. Gupta’s demand was baseless frustration after being influenced by Prof. Dr Rajesh Kumar (Pol Sci).
- The immediate result was my PhD submission being blocked by Dr. Gupta and ex-VC/UGC Secretary Sandhu.
PhD Submission Block
December 2022 (Pre-Submission Date)
- Dr. Gupta set my pre-submission date to December 28th, 4:00 PM, instead of the earlier 19th, with the deadline December 29th (30-31 Dec were holidays).
- She demanded over 100 additional pages with graphs/charts overnight, changes I believe unnecessary.
- Completing these extensive revisions, plagiarism check, binding, and fees in such short notice was impossible.
Deadline Refusal
December 2022 (Final Deadline)
- I repeatedly stated that the compressed timeline made thesis submission physically and logistically impossible.
- Other universities like JNU and Jammu University granted 90-day extensions to PhD students registered in 2014.
- Despite this, GNDU’s VC Dr. Jaspal Sandhu refused my extension request after Dr. Gupta discouraged him, as she was a senate member he required.
Total Duration Represented: April 2022 – December 2022
My PhD Journey at GNDU: Lessons and Warnings
The PhD experience can shape or shatter a researcher’s future. I’m sharing my story from Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) to raise awareness—not out of anger but to expose the harsh realities of research supervision and ethics there.
At GNDU’s Department of Psychology, I noticed a disturbing pattern: while most professors’ students completed their PhDs within four years, those under Dr. Sunita Gupta often took six or more. The research environment, rather than fostering growth, seemed weighed down by favoritism, corruption, and neglect.
The GNDU Experience
PhD admission at GNDU may seem easy, but supportive guidance is rare. Facilities are limited, and supervision too often turns into exploitation. Some professors misuse their influence, with male scholars treated as domestic helpers and female scholars facing professional delays.
My Journey and Supervisor’s Conduct
Dr. Gupta frequently hinted that other students gave her expensive gifts and made similar expectations clear to me. She was superstitious, judgmental, and dismissive of my work—once claiming it would have 50% plagiarism without reviewing it.
As deadlines approached, she avoided me entirely, sending messages through a junior scholar to criticize my “conduct.” She called me names on a lab technician’s phone and used university authorities’ names to intimidate me.
Even after I completed over 170 pages of my thesis, she and her mother mocked it for being “thin.” She once urged me to quit a full-time job to help with her personal errands and home construction. When I organized two international virtual conferences for GNDU through my startup—without charging the university—she misused her authority to discredit my efforts instead of acknowledging them.
Her interference didn’t stop there. She pressured me to retract my research paper over minor citation issues, threatening me verbally. She then demanded access to my startup’s bank statements under the vice-chancellor’s name, and when I refused, she effectively blocked my PhD submission.
Institutional Issues
The hypocrisy ran deep. Dr. Gupta once told me she refused to disclose her students’ external thesis evaluators due to “ethics,” yet required all of us to choose two foreign examiners ourselves. Some of her students’ theses, available on Sodhganga.com, are hundreds of pages long but lack substance—a reflection of quantity over quality.
After she forced me to retract a paper, I resubmitted it to another journal and it was published within a week. Still, she blocked my thesis progress. When the institution failed to act, I realized that justice often depends more on influence than merit.
Advice for PhD Aspirants
If you’re facing a similar situation:
- Document everything and formally request a supervisor change.
- If ignored, contact the UGC directly.
- Never let anyone compromise your mental health for academic power.
GNDU’s problem isn’t its infrastructure—it’s the supervision culture. Choose professors with a record of students finishing within four years. Avoid those with histories of delays, favoritism, and control.
This experience has left me with emotional scars, but also a mission to warn others. Many Indian university scholars silently endure the same. I’ll continue speaking up because awareness is the first step toward reform.
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