In April 2013, Sahai was shown to have committed plagiarism in her habilitation thesis,[9] which had been submitted to the University of Heidelberg in 1986.[10] In addition, she was accused of presenting herself as being or having been a professor at that University, without ever actually having occupied such a position.[9] On 14 April 2013, the University of Heidelberg confirmed that plagiarism had taken place, that Sahai has no right to call herself a professor of the University of Heidelberg, and that in consequence Sahai had agreed to renounce her venia legendi.[9][11] As of 2023[update], Sahai's short bio at the World Academy of Art and Science still lists her as "Professor of Genetics, University of Heidelberg".[12]