Uttarakhand High Court
Dr. Prashant Singh And Others vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 14 June, 2018
Equivalent citations: AIRONLINE 2018 UTR 793
Bench: Rajiv Sharma, Lok Pal Singh
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL
Writ Petition (S/B) No.22 of 2018
Dr. Prashant Singh & Ors. .... Petitioners
Versus
State & Ors. ..... Respondents
Mr. Shobhit Saharia, Advocate for the petitioners
Mr. M.C. Pandey, Addl. Advocate General along with Mr. Rajeev Singh Bisht,
Standing Counsel for the State
Mr. Vikas Pandey, Advocate for respondent no.4.
Ms. Soniya Chawla, Advocate holding brief of Mr. Paresh Tripathi, Advocate
for respondent no.5
Dated: 14th June, 2018
Coram : Hon'ble Rajiv Sharma, J.
Hon'ble Lok Pal Singh, J.
[Per: Hon'ble Rajiv Sharma, J.] The University Grants Commission has framed the Regulations governing the promotion to the post of Professor in the year 2010. The Regulations in entirety were adopted by the State of Uttarkhand to regulate promotions in the Colleges to the post of Professor and other cadres. Paras 6.4.8, 6.4.9, 6.5.1 and 6.5.2 reads as under:
"6.4.8. Associate Professor completing three years of service in stage 4 and possessing a Ph.D Degree in the relevant discipline shall be eligible to be appointed and designated as Professor and he placed in the next higher grade (stage 5), subject to (a) satisfying the required credit points as per API based PBAS methodology provided in Table I-II of Appendix IV stipulated in these Regulations, and (b) an assessment by a duly constituted selection committee as 2 suggested for the direct recruitment of Professor. Provided that no teacher, other than those with a Ph.D shall be promoted or appointed as Professor. 6.4.9. In the case of Associate Professors in Colleges, promotion to the post of Professor under CAS shall be further subject to Clause 6.5.1 and 6.5.2 of this Regulation.
6.5.1(i) Ten percent of the number of the posts of Associate Professor in un Under Graduate College shall be that of Professors and shall be subject to the same criterion for selection/ appointment as that of Professors in Universities.
Provided that there shall be no more than one post of Professor in each Department.
Provided further that one-fourth (25%) of the posts of Professor in Under Graduate Colleges shall be directly recruited or filled on deputation by eligible teachers and the remaining three-fourths (75%) of posts of Professors shall be filled by CAS promotion from among eligible Associate Professors of the relevant department of the Under Graduate College.
For avoidance of doubt, it is clarified that sanctioned posts include the posts approved under both direct recruitment and CAS promotion.
(ii) Identification of posts of Professor in an Under Graduate College for being filled through direct recruitment/ deputation shall be carried out by the affiliating / concerned University acting in 3 consultation with the College. Where the number of posts of Professor worked out as a percentage of the number of posts of Associate Professor for CAS promotion or direct recruitment/ deputation is not an integer, the same shall be rounded off to the next higher integer.
(iii) The selection process is to be conducted by the university by receiving PBAS proformas from eligible Associate Professors based on seniority and three times in number of the available vacancies. In case the number of candidates available is less than three times the number of vacancies, the zone of consideration will be limited to the actual number of candidates available.
The selection shall be conducted through the API scoring system with PBAS methodology and selection committee process stipulated in these Regulations for appointment of Professors. For direct recruitment of the 25% of the posts, the 'Rota-Quota' system shall be followed starting with promotions and the direct recruitment quota shall be rotated in an alphabetical order.
6.5.2 There shall be one post of Professor in each Department of a Post-Graduate College which shall be subject to the same criterion for selection/ appointment as that of Professors in Universities, provided that one-forth (25%) of the posts of Professors shall be filled on deputation/ direct recruitment from among eligible teachers and the remaining three-fourths (75%) of posts shall be filled through merit promotion 4 from among the eligible Associate Professors in the relevant department of the Post - Graduate college.
Identification of posts of Professor in a Post-Graduate College for being filled through direct recruitment/ deputation shall be carried out by the affiliating / concerned University acting in consultation with the College. The decision regarding whether the posts of professor will be for CAS promotion or direct recruitment/ deputation shall be within the competence of the University acting in consultation with the College. Where the number of posts of professor for CAS promotion or direct recruitment/ deputation worked out as a percentage of that total number of posts in a Post Graduate College is not an integer, the same shall be rounded off to the next higher integer.
The selection process is to be conducted by the university by receiving PBAS proformas from eligible Associate Professors based on seniority and three times in number of the available vacancies. In case the number of candidates available is less than three times the number of vacancies, the zone of consideration will be limited to the actual number of candidates available. The selection shall be conducted through the API scoring system with PBAS methodology, selection committee process stipulated in these Regulations for appointment of Professors. For direct recruitment of the 25% of the posts, the 'Rota-Quota System' shall be followed 5 starting with promotion and the direct recruitment quota shall be rotated in an alphabetical order".
2. The effect of harmonious reading of these Regulations is that the post of Professor is to be filled up by way of selection after considering the case of all eligible persons. However, the State Government, in variance to the Regulations framed by the University Grants Commission adopted by the State Government, have issued the Government Order dated 28.09.2016, whereby now the promotion to the post of Professor has been restricted to the senior-most Associate Professor, as per Clause 3. In the eventuality of the senior-most Associate Professor not being eligible, the next in seniority would be promoted to the post of Professor. The eligible candidates are required to be considered at least in the ratio of 1:3. The most meritorious candidates should be selected to the post of Professor strictly as per the Regulations. The Government Order issued by the State Government dated 28.09.2016 runs contrary to the Regulations framed by the University Grants Commission adopted by the State Government. The Notifications cannot supersede the Regulations. If there is a conflict with the Regulations and Notifications, the Regulations would prevail.
3. The Director, Higher Education has also issued letters in contradiction to the Regulations framed by the University Grants Commission adopted by the State Government on 12.10.2017/15.12.2017 6 by making the mode of promotion to the post of Professor as non-selection post instead of selection post.
4. Accordingly, the writ petition is allowed. Clause 3 of the Government Order dated 28.09.2016 is quashed and set aside along with all consequential orders dated 12.10.2017 (Annexure No.5) and dated 15.12.2017 (Annexure No.8). Respondents are directed to initiate and complete the selection process for filling up the post of Professor strictly as per University Grants Commission norms adopted by the State Government, within a period of ten weeks from today.
(Lok Pal Singh, J.) (Rajiv Sharma, J.) 14.06.2018 14.06.2018 Rajni