Punjab-Haryana High Court
Renu vs Vice Chancellor Mdu & Ors on 10 October, 2014
Author: K.Kannan
Bench: K. Kannan
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014
Date of decision: 10 .10.2014
Renu daughter of Shri Rajesh Kumar ... Petitioner
versus
Vice Chancellor, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and
others.
.... Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN
----
Present: Mr. Shalender Mohan, Advocate,
for the petitioner.
Mr. Anurag Goyal, Advocate,
for the respondents.
----
1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the
judgment ? No.
2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? No.
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? No.
----
K.Kannan, J.
1. The petitioner who was admitted to pre-Ph.D course was stopped midway on a plea by the University that the petitioner was not eligible for admission and she had been wrongly admitted to the course. Admittedly, she had not taken the entrance test, claiming exemption on the status as a "teacher fellow". The exemption provided in the prospectus did not define the expression "teacher fellow" and it was sought to be contended that the petitioner had only teaching experience in a polytechnic and not in a regular SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -2- college affiliated to University. The reliance of the University was on the guidelines for the special scheme of faculty development programme for colleges for the 11th plan (2007-2012). The eligibility for securing teacher fellowship is brought out through the guidelines and the contention was that the petitioner did not qualify to be a 'teacher fellow' and her experience cannot secure to her such a categorization to claim exemption.
2. The petitioner has two contentions to make: (i) the guidelines issued did not apply and the definition as contained therein cannot, therefore, describe her status as a 'teacher fellow'; (ii) yet another candidate Pooja Saini had also NOC from the very same institute where the petitioner was working and if she had been treated as having full eligibility, the petitioner could not have been treated as ineligible. In this contention, the petitioner would refer to the fact that in the particular college, namely, R.K.S.D. college where the respondent was working, there was no postgraduate course and, therefore, para 3.1.7 that defined one of the eligible criteria for teacher fellowship was not satisfied even by said Pooja Saini.
3. The first hurdle that would require to be crossed for the petitioner would be to see whether the person could qualify herself could be treated as a teacher fellow and claim exemption from the entrance test for being admitted to Ph.D. programme. SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -3-
4. The petitioner has filed guidelines for Special Scheme of Faculty Development Programme for Colleges for the Twelfth Plan (2012-2017) issued by the University Grants Commission. The teacher fellowship details conditions of eligibility on the following terms:-
"Conditions of eligibility for Teacher Fellowship:
3.1 Teacher Fellowship 3.1.1 The teacher should be permanent/confirmed (or have been appointed on a regular basis in case of Government Colleges).
3.1.2 Teachers working in self financing colleges are also eligible provided they fulfil eligibility criteria for the appointment of post of Assistant Professor as prescribed by the UGC.
3.1.3 The teacher should not be more than 50 years of age (relaxable by 5 years in the case of women teachers and teachers belonging to SC/ST/Minority Communities on the date of application. 3.1.4 The teacher should have at least a second class Master's Degree with minimum 55% marks (50% marks for teachers from SC/ST/Minority Communities).
Teachers appointed/empanelled prior to 19th September, 1991 should have a minimum of 50% marks (45% marks SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -4- in case of teachers from SC/ST/Minority Communities) at Master's level or equivalent in the seven point grading scale with letter grades O, A, B, C, D, E & F. 3.1.5 The teacher should have at least 3 years of teaching experience on the date of submission of the application for the award of Teacher Fellowship. 3.1.6 The teacher who had not availed of any Teacher Fellowship from the UGC or any other agency earlier may be given preference.
3.1.7 A Teacher Fellow will register for M.Phil. in a College/University/Institution, which offers M.Phil. programme in the concerned subject. A teacher seeking Teacher Fellowship for completion of Ph.D. should have already registered for Ph.D. in any Indian University and completed some work. (He/she should also submit an undertaking that the thesis will be submitted within the tenure of the Fellowship) or at least within six months from the end of the tenure of the Fellowship.
3.1.8 Librarians not having teaching experience are not eligible.
3.1.9 A Teacher Fellow may be permitted to do M.Phil. in the Institution in which he/she is employed provided that the University/College is running the SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -5- M.Phil. course in the concerned subject. Also, a Teacher Fellow will be permitted to do research work leading to Ph.D. in the Institution where he/she is employed, provided that the Institution has postgraduate teaching in the concerned subject with adequate facilities for conducting research.
3.1.10 The teacher will continue to receive full salary (with usual increments and protection of seniority) from the Parent Institution during the period of Teacher Fellowship."
Of the above terms, 3.1.7 is relevant, in that, it requires that it will be possible to register in a College/University/Institution which offers M.Phil. Programme in the concerned subject, if he wants to register for M.Phil. and a teacher seeking fellowship for completion of Ph.D. should have registered for Ph.D. in any Indian University and completed some work. A teacher fellow could do Ph.D. as per para 3.1.9, if in the institution where he/she is employed, permits to do research work leading to Ph.D. provided that the institution has postgraduate teaching in the concerned subject with adequate facilities. The tenure of teacher fellowship, para 3.3, declares to be for a period of two years and extension for one year could also be granted on the recommendations of the Supervisor/Guide and No Objection Certificate from the Parent Institution. Para 4 describes SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -6- the procedure for applying under the scheme. The application must be recommended by a Selection Committee constituted by the Principal of College, Head of the Department/a Senior Teacher of the College, nominee of the affiliating University, a subject expert from the Teaching Department and where for SC/ST/OBC candidates, there shall be one SC/ST Community. Para 5 enjoins that on the recommendations of the Selection Committee, the University Grants Commission shall decide on the award of the Fellowship and the period thereof. The Teacher Fellowship also makes eligible for actual contingency expenditure an amount upto `15,000/- per year.
5. It could be noticed that every person that is admitted to Ph.D. programme will first have to take a pre-Ph.D. examination. For this examination, the requirement is to attend regular classes. Exemption is, however, granted to persons, who are Lecturers in affiliated colleges of the respondent-University, but, however, they would still require to attend a capsule course. The petitioner, who had been originally issued with No Objection Certificate from the college and who had been admitted to the pre-Ph.D. course was allowed to register for the capsule course but when she started attending, there was one person in the faculty who objected to her (the petitioner's) participation on the ground that exemption from attending regular course was not applicable to her. The petitioner SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -7- had a grievance that the particular staff was having a personal bias against the petitioner and called her by caste name and she gave representation to the Vice Chancellor. The University had not merely refused to issue the roll number but also went on to cancel admission already made to her. There are two things at issue now (i) whether the cancellation of admission was justified; (ii) whether the exemption granted from attending the regular classes was also erroneous.
6. The University brochure for registration to Ph.D. programme requires every candidate to seek admission for a pre- Ph.D. Course first. The academic eligibility for Ph.D. programmes and procedure for admission to pre-Ph.D. Course are as under:-
"3. Academic Eligibility:
A candidate who wishes to be accepted as a candidate for Ph.D. research programme must satisfy the following academic criteria:-
(i) Master's degree with at least 55% marks in aggregate in the subject concerned or in an allied subject (50% for SC/ST candidates).
OR
(ii) M.Phil degree or a recognised equivalent degree beyond Master's degree level with at least 55% marks (50% for SC/ST candidates) or equivalent grade in the SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -8- grading system and Master's degree with 50% marks in aggregate in the subject concerned or an allied subject.
(iii) For Faculty of Management Sciences-Master's degree or any other degree recognised equivalent thereto in (a) Business Administration or Economics or Commerce or in allied subjects with at least 55% marks OR (b) Post Graduate Diploma in Management recognized equivalent to MBA by AICTE/AIU with 55% marks of equivalent grade therein.
(iv) Candidates with Qualifications as laid down in (iii) shall also be eligible for doing Ph.D. in Department of Economics and Faculty of Commerce.
NOTE:
(a) The above conditions shall not be applicable in the case of University appointed teachers/approved teachers of the colleges affiliated to any statutory University.
(b) The allied/relevant subject and research topic and the Supervisor will be decided by the Departmental Research Committee.
4. Procedure for Admission to Pre Ph.D. Course
(i) Applications for enrolment to pre-Ph.D. course shall be advertised once in a year normally in the month of June/July.
SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 -9-
(ii) The University shall make admission to pre-Ph.D. course through an entrance test the syllabus of which will be decided by the concerned Teaching Departments.
(iii) Entrance Test will be of 100 marks and a candidate must secure 50% marks to qualify the same (45% for SC/ST candidates).
(iv) The following categories of candidates are exempted from entrance test:
(a) The candidates who have qualified UGC/CSIR (JRF/NET) or any other similar examination/SLET/GATE, as the case may be.
(b) Teacher Fellows and M.Phil. degree holders.
(c) Regular teaches of Universities and affiliated Colleges."
Master's degree in various subjects would not be applicable in the case of University appointed teachers or approved teachers of the colleges affiliated to any statutory University. If a candidate fulfilled all the above requirements of academic eligibility, he or she has to seek for admission to pre-Ph.D. course by taking an entrance test. There is exemption provided to certain classes of persons and we have already outlined that the petitioner claimed exemption as a teacher fellow and directly admitted to pre-Ph.D. Course. SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 - 10 -
7. The crucial issue relating to examination of whether the petitioner was a teacher fellow has been brought out by reference to the guidelines for the Special Scheme for Faculty Development Programme and the manner of securing fellowship of the UGC. The fellowship of UGC is conferred by UGC to certain classes of persons. Every person who is eligible to be a teacher fellow is not necessarily a person who could claim exemption. He or she ought to have been admitted to the fellowship of UGC. There can be no argument that the petitioner fulfills all the necessary qualifications for being awarded the fellowship. I will not find a need for going to a situation of where a teacher in a technical college could obtain teacher fellowship. If such a person could obtain teacher fellowship and the petitioner had been awarded such a fellowship, then an exemption was possible. I am prepared to assume that even a person employed in a technical college in a polytechnic is entitled to be admitted for fellowship. It would seem from the guidelines for special scheme that 20% of the permanent teachers are eligible to avail teacher fellowship from an institution at any point of time. It should, therefore, be shown that in the polytechnic in which the petitioner was working had actually been awarded with fellowship. We have already seen the provisions that requires a Selection Committee to actually go through the process of admission of a person to fellowship. There is nothing brought on record to show SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 - 11 - that the petitioner had been awarded such a fellowship through the admission procedure which the guidelines prescribed. It is one thing to state that she was eligible for being awarded teacher fellowship but quite another to say that she had been awarded such a fellowship. If she had a fellowship, then an exemption from taking entrance test for pre-Ph.D. arises. If she had, on the other hand, only an eligibility to secure fellowship but she did not actually have the fellowship, the exemption could not have been granted at all from taking the test. If she could not have been granted exemption but admitted to the pre-Ph.D. programme, then even an exemption from attending regular course does not arise, for, the basic lack of eligibility itself makes her admission suspect and renders her ineligible either to attend a regular course or a capsule programme. The denial of admission to the petitioner cannot be, therefore, complained of.
8. I am not examining the issue of comparison which the petitioner makes for admission of Pooja Saini. She was not merely working in Uttawar polytechnic, but she had been earlier working in an affiliated college of the University in R.K.S.D. college of Pharmacy. In any event, the issue is not merely with reference to an exemption from attending regular classes for pre-Ph.D. Programme, but the issue is more fundamental of whether the petitioner had eligibility to claim exemption for taking the entrance test. The SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Civil Writ Petition No.6075 of 2014 - 12 - petitioner's case ought to fail in that regard that she cannot claim herself to be a teacher fellow to obtain exemption. The actual status of Miss Pooja Saini is not clearly spelt out whether she also lacked eligibility for admission to Ph.D. programme. The petitioner cannot succeed as one who was ineligible to be admitted without undergoing an entrance test which admittedly, she did not go through.
9. The writ petition is dismissed.
(K.KANNAN) JUDGE 10.10.2014 sanjeev SANJEEV KUMAR 2014.10.14 12:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document