The HRD ministry is brazenly riding the embarrassment it has heaped upon itself by issuing record show cause notices to eight vice-chancellors of central universities on charges of financial and administrative irregularities. Besides former Delhi University V-C Dinesh Singh, against whom the ministry could not prove any of its charges, it seems the government is set to drop its case against another V-C. Allahabad University head R L Hangloo is learnt to have furnished a convincing defense to the allegations against him. The ministry is, therefore, unlikely to recommend his sacking.