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Anomalies, if any, in the implementation of the scheme may be brought to the notice of Higher Education Department for clarification."

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14. The language of this memo makes it clear that the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, issued a letter dated 31.12.2008 followed by UGC letter dated 30.06.2010, making recommendations for minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in the Universities and Colleges and measures for maintenance of standards of Higher Education. In supersession of earlier Memos dated 28.08.2009, 09.09.2009 and 29.04.2011, the State Government had issued Memo dated 21.07.2011 and the decision taken by the Sate Government notified vide the said Memo was incorporated in enclosed Appendices. Appendix-I to the said Memo is regarding the minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and equivalent cadres in universities and colleges and the measures to be adopted for the maintenance of requisite standards. Clause 3.0(b) of the said appendix relates to direct recruitment in Colleges and it states that Assistant Professors are to be appointed through merit based system and selections are to be conducted by HPSC and/or the selection committee constituted by the Government and duly constituted Selection Committees established under the rules/instructions of the State Government. This means that selections can be done either by HPSC by itself or in conjunction with a Selection Committee constituted by Government or through a Selection Committee constituted under the Rules/Instructions issued by the State Government. Thus, in the case of Government Colleges, selections can also be made through Selection Committees constituted by the State Government under the statue. Similarly in case of private aided colleges, a similar selection committee can do the job. In the case of private unaided colleges, the composition of the selection committee would depend upon the rules of affiliation and other instructions governing the subject. Clause 4.0 relates to qualifications for the post of Assistant Professor in Universities and Colleges. Clause 7.0 relates to selection committees and guidelines on selection procedures. Sub Clause 7.1(4) is regarding selection of Assistant Professors in 10 of 14 Colleges including Private Colleges and it prescribes that such selections would be done as per prevalent practice and rules in force from time to time. Thus, this sub- clause clarifies that recruitment of Assistant Professors in Colleges is to be made through a process already in place including selection through HPSC. Clause 7.2 relates to selection procedures and sub clause 1 thereof stipulates that the selection procedure shall be transparent and that various qualities possessed by a candidate are to be evaluated on the basis of Academic Performance Indicators (API) as provided in tables I to IX of Appendix IV annexed with the Memo. It is, however, open to the State Government to revise the API from time to time. To make the selection process more credible, it is open to the selection committee to assess the teaching skills and research potential of candidates by adoption of innovative methods at the stage of interview. Sub clause 7.8 states that the API for selection of Assistant Professors in Colleges shall be in accordance with Table I and III of Appendix IV. The rest of this Appendix i.e. Appendix-I deals with pay scales, career advancement scheme, leave, probation and confirmation, creation and filling up of teaching posts and certain other service conditions. Appendix-II deals with the revision of pay structures of teachers and equivalent cadres. Appendix-III relates to qualifications prescribed for appointment and Appendix-IV relates to API in recruitment and career advancement scheme. Certain tables are appended with Annexure-IV and the petitioners placed reliance upon the table under the heading "Appendix-III Table-II(C)". In this table in the column of Assistant Professor/equivalent cadre, no minimum API scores are prescribed. It is only mentioned that the candidate must possess minimum qualification as stipulated. Thereafter, the selection criteria to be adopted is provided as academic record - 50%, assessment of domain knowledge - 30% and interview performance - 20%.

15. The claim of the petitioners is that the State Government has adopted the selection criteria mentioned above because the Memo dated 21.7.2011 11 of 14 specifically records that the recommendations adopted are contained in the enclosed Appendices. However, this argument can not be accepted for the simple reason that the tables are annexed with Annexure-IV, which deals with API scores only. Moreover, Appendix-I dealing with the selection procedures etc. only provides the minimum qualifications and the API scores for various posts. As per the table relied upon by the petitioners, API scores are not applicable to the selection of Assistant Professors in Colleges. This view is reinforced by the stipulation contained in sub-clause 7.1(4) of Appendix-I. Thus, the only possible conclusion is that the selection criteria mentioned in the table in the preceding paragraph has not been adopted by the State Government and its stand in the various affidavits submitted on its behalf is proved to be correct.