IMPORTANT POINT
The seniority of professors promoted under the Career Advancement Scheme is determined by their date of eligibility as per the Selection Committee's recommendations, as governed by UGC Regulations.

JUDGMENT :

Sandeep Sharma, J.

Petitioner, who is working as a Professor and Dean, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in Central University of Himachal Pradesh (hereinafter, ‘University’), has filed the present petition praying for following main reliefs:

“i. That respondents may kindly be directed to issue a writ of certiorari to quash Annexure P-1 dated 15^th September, 2020, whereby inter se seniority list of Professors has been issued and the petitioner is kept at Sr. No.2 instead of Sr. No.1.

ii. That the writ of mandamus may kindly be issued against the promoted Professors under CAS scheme and all promoted Professors should be treated as Additional Professors, but not as full-fledged Professor.

iii. Pay-scales of promoted Professors under CAS should be reduced.

iv. The respondent University may kindly be fined with heavy cost and the same may kindly be given to the present petitioner, as he has been put to unnecessarily litigation in the present case.”

2. The University, which has been established under the Central Universities Act, 2009, started functioning in January, 2010. University Grants Commission granted approval for running various academic programmes and also approved creation of various teaching positions vide letters dated 10.8.2010 (Annexure R-1) and 18.8.2010 (annexure R-2). Consequently, the University started process to fill up the posts through direct recruitment, on regular basis. In the interview held for the post of Professor, Department of Environment on 16.2.2012, one Dr. Tamizul Islam Khan Jamali was selected and petitioner was placed in waiting list (Annexure R-4). On 12.2.2012, Dr. Tamizul Islam Khan Jamali was repatriated to his parent Institution i.e. University of Rajasthan and petitioner was given appointment to the post of Professor, Department of Environment Science on 15.2.2013. He joined on 26.2.2013.

3. Simultaneously, in the interview for the post of Professor, Department of English held on 18.2.2012, respondent No.3 also appeared, but none was found suitable for appointment, however, he had also applied for the post of Associate Professor, Department of English, for which also interview was held on 18.2.2012, in which he was selected and he joined the University on 27.3.2012.

4. As per University, appointment of teachers and other academic staff in Universities is governed by the University Grants Commission 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 (hereinafter, ’Regulations’). Said Regulations, inter alia also provide for promotion under Career Advancement Scheme (in short, ‘CAS’). Ordinance 47 was framed to deal with promotion of University teachers under CAS strictly in accordance with Clause 6.4.0 of the Regulations. Clause 10.0 of Regulations and Clause 9 of Ordinance No. 47 provide for counting of past service for direct recruitment and promotion under CAS. Clause 10 of the Regulations reads as under:

“10.0 Counting of past services for direct recruitment and promotion under CAS.

10.1 Previous regular service, whether national or international, as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Professor or equivalent in a University, College, National Laboratories or other scientific/professional Organizations such as the CSIR, ICAR, DRDO, UGC, ICSSR, ICHR, ICMR, DBT etc. should be counted for direct recruitment and promotion under CAS of a teacher as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor or any other nomenclature these posts are described as per Appendix III- Table No. II provided that:

(a) The essential qualifications of the post held were not lower than the qualifications prescribed by the UGC for Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor as the case may be.

(b) The post is/was in an equivalent grade or of the pre-revised scale of pay as the post of Assistant Professor (Lecturer) Associate Professor (Reader) and Profe