IMPORTANT POINT
Promotion – Date of initial appointment is to be counted as regular service for the purpose of grant of benefits in accordance with Career Advancement Scheme (“CAS”) under UGC Regulations.

JUDGMENT :

M.R. SHAH, J.

1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in Writ Appeal No. 1355 of 2019 by which the Division Bench of the High Court has dismissed the said writ appeal preferred by the appellant and has confirmed the judgment and order passed by the learned Single Judge passed in Writ Petition No. 13265 of 2018 directing the appellant University to pass appropriate orders counting the past service of the respondent, who was working as Assistant Professor in the School of Behavioural Sciences under the University, for the purposes of computing the benefits due to her in accordance with the Career Advancement Scheme (hereinafter referred to as “CAS”) under the UGC Regulations, the University has preferred the present appeal.

2. The respondent herein was initially appointed as a Lecturer in the School of Medical Education, a self-financing institution under the appellant University w.e.f. 03.10.1998. The said appointment was consequent to a selection process that was conducted pursuant to administrative sanction accorded by the Vice-Chancellor of the University after obtaining necessary approval from the Director, School of Medical Education. Initially, she was appointed on probation. Her probation in the post of Lecturer was thereafter declared on 03.10.1999 and she continued to work as Lecturer till 05.02.2001. That thereafter she was appointed as Assistant Professor in Nursing for the period between 06.02.2001 and 11.10.2004 as Associate Professor in Nursing between 04.10.2004 and 11.04.2005 and as Professor in Nursing between 12.04.2005 and 20.01.2011. That thereafter w.e.f. 21.01.2011, she was appointed as Assistant Professor in the School of Behavioural Sciences, department of the Mahatma Gandhi University.

2.1 The dispute arose with regard to the entitlement of the respondent to reckon her service in the School of Medical Education for the period between 03.10.1998 to 21.02.2011 for the purpose of the CAS envisaged under the UGC Regulations. Her request for extension of benefit of CAS was considered favourably by the University and by order dated 06.12.2013, the Syndicate of the University decided to grant her the benefits of promotion, pay fixation etc. by reckoning her service in the School of Medical Education for the said purpose. That thereafter, the Vice-Chancellor, in exercise of his powers under Section 10(17) under Chapter III of the Mahatma Gandhi University Act, 1985 accepted the recommendation of the Syndicate Staff Sub-Committee and revoked the earlier resolution of the Syndicate that had granted the respondent the benefits of the CAS. The reason stated for revocation of the earlier Syndicate decision and the denial of the benefits of CAS to the respondent was that her initial appointment as Lecturer in the School of Medical Education was not to a post that was duly sanctioned in terms of the Mahatma Gandhi University Statutes.

2.2 The denial/revocation of the earlier Syndicate decision and the denial of the benefit of CAS were the subject matter of writ petition before the learned Single Judge. The learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition by observing that the appointment of the respondent as Lecturer was after following selection procedure and that she was duly qualified. The learned Single Judge therefore directed to count the past services of the respondent in the School of Medical Education in accordance with the UGC Regulations and to grant the benefit of CAS. The appeal preferred by the appellant before the Division Bench of the High Court has been dismissed by the impugned judgment and order. Hence the University has preferred the present appeal.

3. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant University has taken us to Regulation 10.1 of the UGC Regulations. It is submitted that as per Regulation 10.1, only previous regular service as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor shoul