Rajeev Kumar is now at Jawaharlal Nehru University.[1][2][3][4] [5] He is known for his fight with IITs to fix the eligibility criteria of admission through the JEE. A "protracted legal struggle"[6] over yearswith several tiers of the IIT administration, led to in 2010, the Delhi High Court ordering the IITs to reveal such information.[7][8] Since 2012, every candidate gets a carbon copy of their paper, and the various cutoffs are announced.[9]Due to this activism he was suspended, then compulsorily retired by IIT Kharagpur in 2014; he was reinstated in 2017 by the President Pranab Mukherjee.[10]
In 2011, Kumar was suspended for damaging the reputation of IIT Kharagpur by reporting the massive copying that goes on in the institute, and for exposing a scam in the purchase of laptop computers.[11] The institute had also illegally accessed Kumar's phone records.[12]This led to noted Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan asking the MHRD Minister Kapil Sibal to ensure that whistleblowers like Rajeev should not be harassed.[13] Despite letters from the MHRD and the Central Vigilance Commission in 2013, IIT Kharagpur did not revoke the suspension.[6][14][15][16] In July 2012, the registrar of IIT wrote to the ministry "saying the withdrawal of suspension of Prof. Kumar and resumption of dutieswould adversely affect the academic atmosphere of the institute."[17]
Finally, the suspension was lifted in May 2013,[18]