IMPORTANT POINT
When experts take a decision to select and appoint a candidate, Court cannot interfere with and set aside the appointment.

JUDGMENT :

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal has been preferred against the impugned judgment dated December 16, 2016, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Calcutta, by which the High Court has dismissed the appeal preferred by the appellant Dr. Sridip Chatterjee and confirmed the judgment dated April 16, 2014, passed by the learned Single Judge whereby appointment of the appellant to the post of Assistant Professor in Physical Education (Yoga Therapy) under the respondent University was set aside.

3. The subject matter of challenge in this appeal is the selection and subsequent appointment of appellant to the post of Assistant Professor in Physical Education (Yoga Therapy) of the Jadavpur University.

4. Brief facts, giving rise to the present appeal as emerging from the material on record, are that the respondent-University published an advertisement on November 22, 2012 inviting applications from suitable candidates for the post of Assistant Professor in Physical Education (Yoga Therapy). The qualification prescribed in the advertisement for the said post is Masters

5. in Yoga/Yoga Therapy or Masters in Physical Education with Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga/Yoga Therapy with at least 55% (or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed). The appellant applied for the said post and appeared in the selection process with other candidates. The appellant appeared before the Selection Committee consisting of Dr. Arun Kumar Uppal, Prof. Rajesh Tripathi, Prof. Krishna Banerjee, Dr. Sudip Sunder Das, Prof. Sanat Kr. Naskar and Dr. A.N. Dey for an interview on March 26, 2013. He was selected to the said post on March 28, 2013.

6. Respondent No. 1 submitted a representation before respondent No.3 challenging the eligibility of the appellant to participate in the selection process as according to respondent No.1, appellant did not fulfil the essential qualification for the said post. Subsequently, in reply to an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, respondent No. 1 came to know that the appellant had already been appointed to the said post by a letter of appointment dated March 28, 2013.

7. Respondent No. 1, being aggrieved by the appointment of appellant to the post of Assistant Professor in Physical Education (Yoga Therapy), filed writ petition in the High Court of Calcutta. The learned Single Bench of the High Court set aside the appointment of the appellant and held that the duty of the University is to form an Equivalence Committee, which must comprise experts and on the basis of the reports gathered from the institute awarding a certain degree. The committee of the University on its own should not have come to a conclusion that the qualification possessed by a candidate is equivalent or not. It was found that the University has not clarified that the appellant had the requisite qualification to be appointed for the said post as University was required to come to a conclusion that Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga Education is equivalent to the Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga/Yoga Therapy. It was held that eight candidates were considered by the Selection Committee but why the appellant was considered best even in the teeth of the apparent incongruity in the educational qualification possessed by him and laid down in the advertisement. The University should have found that the Diploma in Yoga Education was equivalent to Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga/Yoga Therapy. In view of the said fact, the Court directed the University to take appropriate steps for a fresh selection from amongst the candidates who had applied pursuant to the advertisement in accordance with law.

8. Aggrieved against the said judgment, the appellant availed the remedy of intra-court appeal. The learned Division Bench dismissed the appeal and held as under:

“Admittedly, the appellant did not possess Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga/Yoga Therapy with at least 55% marks which was one of the essential criteria fo