Kerala High Court sets aside posting of four persons as assistant professors in Aligarh University Malappuram centre
KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has set aside the appointment of four persons to the post of assistant professor in Management Studies and Research at Aligarh University Malappuram centre.
The court issued the order on a batch of petitions filed by several candidates, who have applied for the post, challenging the appointment alleging the selection was made violating UGC norms. As per UGC regulation, the Selection Committee has to award marks to the candidates separately for the components: ‘a’ - Academic Records and Research Performance (50 per cent); ‘b’ - Assessment of Domain Knowledge and Teaching Skills (30 per cent), and ‘c’ - Interview performance (20 per cent).
The university submitted the marks were awarded by the selection committee after adverting to the criteria and therefore, it does not suffer from any illegality.
According to the petitioners, the marks awarded by the selection committee are only based on interview performance in the interview and no marks have been awarded under the criteria ‘a’ and ‘b’.
The court said the selection committee had not followed the UGC regulation in awarding marks. The consolidated marks could not have been awarded in interview performance under the whole head of ‘a’ to ‘c’.
The marks could be awarded by the university objectively based on the interview performance only under category ‘c’. The court noted the marks were given in the ‘age’ factor as well.
While setting aside the appointment, the court made it clear the selected persons can continue till fresh selection were made. Fresh selection shall be made, based on the records already produced by the parties, within a period of two months.
It is open for the university to constitute a new selection committee. All the shortlisted applicants for an interview pursuant to the notification shall be invited for consideration. The selection committee shall select only such candidates who have been shortlisted for interview.