The court upheld that the amended UGC regulations apply to appointments made after the lifting of the recruitment ban, confirming the appellant's ineligibility for the Assistant Professor position.

JUDGMENT :

G. JAYACHANDRAN, R. POORNIMA, JJ.

The appellant herein aggrieved by the dismissal of her writ petition W.P(MD)No.12839 of 2014 on 01.08.2022, by a learned Single Judge is before the Bench.

2. The Appellant herein, in her writ petition, sought for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus directing the Director of Collegiate Education to grant qualification approval for her appointment as lecturer (in other words ‘Assistant Professor’) in the Physics in the 4th respondent/Nesamony Memorial Christian College, Marthandam, Kanyakumari District, an institution run by religious minority called Kanyakumari Diocese, CSI.

3. According to the appellant, she joined the 4th respondent College as Assistant Professor (Physics) on 03.09.2009. At the time of her appointment, she was holding M.Sc., M.Phil., degree in Physics. On the date of her appointment, she was fully qualified to hold the post of Assistant Professor. Her appointment was on the score of the retirement of the Assistant Professor, who was working in the sanctioned post. However, in the year 2014 after lifting the ban on recruitment, out of three Assistant Professors, appointed on 03.04.2009 for other two Assistant Professors, the Governing Body of the College resolved to appoint them in the existing vacancy, whereas left out the writ petitioner alone. The act of the management is therefore arbitrary and illegal.

4. The Department as well as the Management opposed the writ petition on the ground that, the writ petitioner and two others were appointed in the 4th respondent College on 03.09.2009. The Collegiate Directorate permitted the college to fill up the vacancies only in the year 2014, after lifting the ban on recruitment. At the time of appointing the writ petitioner and others, UGC guidelines of the year 2006 was in force. According to the UGC regulation 2006, possession of NET/SLET certificate for the post of the Assistant Professors in UG course is exempted, if the candidate possess M.Phil degree. However, in the year 2014, UGC amended its regulation and made Ph.D., or NET/SLET mandatory for the post of Assistant Professors. So on the date of the permission granted to fill the vacancy, only two among the three persons appointed on 03.09.2009 were found eligible. The writ petitioner, who did not possess NET/SLET or Ph.D., Degree was found not eligible, hence, her name was not considered to fill up the third vacancy.

5. The averment of the writ petitioner that her initial appointment was for the vacancy in the aided post and on the date of her appointment she was exempted from possessing NET/SLET or Ph.D., hence, only the old UGC 2006 alone apply to her was negatived by the learned single Judge accepting the plea of the Management and the Government that the writ petitioner was kept under the self finance category only, since there was no permission to fill the vacancy in the aided post. The writ petitioner got her Ph.D., degree only in the year 2018. Her candidature will be considered in the future vacancy under the aided category.

6. The Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellant, referring the Hand Book issued by the Management and the circular issued by UGC with regard to qualification criteria prior to amendment, strongly submitted that, for the candidate appointed pursuant to the advertisement prior to UGC notification dated 18th September 2010, the regulation on the date of advertisement has to be followed. Therefore, the appellant, who was appointed on 03.09.2009 is governed only by the old UGC Regulations 2006 and not the amended regulations of the year 2010. He further submitted that, the approval of the appointment got delayed due to the recruitment ban till 2014. When the candidature of the appellant taken up for consideration in the year 2014, the amended regulation which came into force in 2010 applied to disqualify the appellant. The clarification given by UGC on 30.08.2016 makes clear that the amended regulation of the year 2010 cannot be applied to the