Nayyar said they also found out that some of these movies were banned in France and there were many reviews condemning them. 'Therefore there is no need to rush and let us weigh all the pros and cons of the issue,' he added.

Anil Raina, former chairman of the English department and RDC member, told IANS: 'There were one or two members of the committee who were not in favour of this topic because of its content. Moreover, the movie VCDs are not easily available in the market, so for the time being we have deferred this topic.'

'We have not dropped his topic and told him to first submit the VCDs to us; we will take a decision after evaluating every parameter,' he added.

Meanwhile, some faculty members claimed that mischievous elements within the department were behind highlighting the issue in bad light.

Akshaya Gupta, a professor in the English department, told IANS: 'Some faculty members have blown this issue out of proportion. RDC always has a right to direct the candidate to make certain changes in his research subject and it can even drop the topic. It had also happened in the past.'

'This case was widely discussed in the RDC and we have just directed him (Kalra) to make some legitimate changes. Otherwise, everything is fine with us,' he added.

However, other research scholars, who are pursuing their research work at PU are also not happy with the decision of RDC.

Research scholar Harmanjit Singh Deol, working on the feasibility of the Right to Information Act, told IANS: 'It is very disgusting on the part of RDC that they are delaying the project because it is based on pornographic or obscene material.'

'By raising such questions, they are diluting the real purpose of doctorate studies. RDC always has a right to suggest various additional things but interfering in the topic itself is quite shocking,' he said.