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TOTAL---------100 (D) SLET/SET score shall be valid for appointment in respective State Universities/Colleges/Institutions only.

3. The petitioner Dr. Jayanta Dhar in WP(C) No.90 of 2023 approached this Court on being aggrieved by his non-selection with the following prayers:-

(i) To award API score for Teaching/Post Doctoral Experience for the service rendered by the petitioner in ICFAI Law College, ICFAI University, Tripura as Assistant Professor (w.e.f. 17.06.2019 to 30.06.2022) and the service rendered after Ph.D. in connection with the Recruitment Process for the post of Assistant Professor under Advertisement No.06/2022 dated 07.03.2022;

"(i) The Teaching Experience** of Higher Education Institution has been considered.

(ii) If the period of teaching/Post-doctoral experience is less than one year then the marks shall be reduced proportionately.

(iii) Other criteria for calculation of API scores/ Academic Record & Research Performance have been followed as per UGC Regulations-2018 and the API calculation methodology as published in the advertisement. **Teaching/Post-doctoral Experience in terms of Clause- 10.0 of UGC REGULATIONS ON MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS AND OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES AND MEASURES FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, 2018 relates to Higher Education Institution."

12. Mr. Arijit Bhaumik, learned counsel for the petitioners, has also pointed out to the relaxation granted in this criteria under (II), specifically the last paragraph thereof which allows counting of teaching experience for the period of active service spent on pursuing Research Degree simultaneously with teaching assignment without taking any kind of leave. As per the selection procedure prescribed under Annexure-A and B for the notified post of Assistant Professor, the overall selection procedure would be based on a grading system proforma as per Appendix-II, Table-3B of the UGC Regulations, 2018 as amended. The Academic score as specified in Annexure-II, Table 3B for Colleges shall be considered for short-listing of the candidates (maximum 5 candidates for each post notified) for interview. TPSC shall constitute Selection Committee and fix qualifying cut off marks (if any) for interview as per UGC guideline, 2018 as amended time to time. Screening API score followed by selection process of interview with a weightage of 15% and API score weightage of 85% in adherence to New Recruitment Policy, 2018 and UGC Regulation, 2018 shall be followed. Accordingly, 15 marks for interview/personality test is fixed for the post of Assistant Professor, Government Law College, out of which 1 (one) mark is reserved for assessment of the desirable qualification, i.e. knowledge of Bengali or Kokborok. Merit list will be formed by TPSC aggregating the 85% of marks obtained by the candidate as per API score and interview marks scored by the candidate and following other instructions in the latest UGC guideline. Rest of the clauses of Annexure-A prescribe for the constitution of the Selection Committee for the post of Assistant Professor in Colleges. Annexure-B which has been extracted hereinabove as well lays down the criteria for short-listing of candidates for interview for the post of Assistant Professor, Government Law College and in particular, at Clause-7 prescribes 10 marks for Teaching/Post Doctoral Experience (2 marks for each one year).

19. One other distinguishing feature on facts which is noted in the present cases is that even if the Teaching Experience of the petitioner Dr. Jayanta Dhar or Dr. Anindita Choudhury for having worked under ICFAI Law College, Tripura could have been counted, their total API score based on the formula, i.e. 85% of the total API score would not have been above the last recommended candidate in the UR category who scored 76.85 marks. Learned counsel for the petitioners has in this regard referred to the computation of the score by the Scrutiny Committee at Page-47, Annexure-10 to WP(C) No.90 of 2023, where the name of the petitioner Dr. Jayanta Dhar appears at Sl. No.21 with API score out of 100 marks as 72 and that of one Ankur Sarkar at Sl. No.29, a selected candidate, (whose API score is shown as 78) but it has been pointed out by the learned counsel for the TPSC that the computation of the API score for purposes of preparation of the final result would be only 85% of the API score and as such, in the ultimate analysis the petitioners would not have gone higher even if their contention of counting their Teaching Experience as Assistant Professor in ICFAI Law College, Tripura could have been accepted. However, on the main plank of challenge laid by the petitioners, this Court is satisfied that the Scrutiny Committee had not committed any illegality or arbitrariness in following the UGC Regulations, 2018 in the matter of counting of Teaching Experience of the candidates by reference to Clause-10.0 of the Regulations as they squarely apply to counting of such an experience of past services in matters of direct recruitment and promotion under CAS and that the principle has been applied uniformly without any discrimination to all candidates.