The appointment of the Director of a legal education institute must comply with the qualifications set by the Bar Council of India's Rules of Legal Education, 2008.

JUDGMENT

Mr. Harsh Bunger, J.

Petitioner (Shruti Bedi) has filed the instant writ petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, seeking a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing of order dated 31.05.2023 (Annexure P-13) appointing respondent No.6 as Director of University Institute of Legal Studies, Punjab University (respondent No.4).

A further prayer has been made for issuing a writ in the nature of Quo-Warranto against respondent No.6, who is stated to have usurped the public post of Director of University Institute of Legal Studies, having been appointed vide order dated 31.05.2023 (Annexure P-13) despite not being qualified as per the provisions of Rules of Legal Education, 2008.

Another prayer has been made for issuing a writ in the nature of mandamus directing respondent Nos.1 to 3 to appoint the petitioner as Director of respondent No.4-University Institute of Legal Studies, Punjab University, Chandigarh, being the senior-most eligible faculty member, as per the Rules of Legal Education, 2008 (Annexure P-2) read with Punjab University Rules of Headship of Teaching Departments of Punjab University Calendar, 2019 (Annexure P-1).

2. Briefly, the University Institute of Legal Studies (here-in-after called as 'the Institute') was constituted by the Punjab University in the year 2004; wherein the programme of five years' degree in B.A. LL.B. and B.Com LL.B, as well as, programmes awarding one year and two years LL.M. Degrees are undertaken and degrees are awarded. It is stated that respondent No.4-Institute has secured the approval/affiliation from the Bar Council of India (respondent No.5) which is the governing body in cases of institutions imparting legal education in India.

3. Then there are Rules of Headship of Teaching Department of Punjab University (in short 'Rules of Headship') as per Punjab University Calendar, 2019; whereby, each and every department of the University is required to have a Chairperson/Head, who is designated by the Senate on the recommendations of the Syndicate. Rule 2.1 of the Rules of Headship provides for appointment of Chairperson/Head of the Department on rotation basis from amongst the Professors by maintaining a seniority thereof. Further, in terms of Rule 2.3 of the Rules of Headship, the Chairperson/Head of the Department holds the office for a period of three years and after the cessation of the said period, the post is filled up from amongst the other eligible candidates in the Department by way of rotation. The aforesaid Rules 2.1 and 2.3 of the Rules of Headship, read as under :-

"2.1 Each Teaching Department shall have a Chairperson/Head to be designated by the Senate on the recommendations of the Syndicate in the manner provided as under:-

(i)(a) The Chairperson/Head of a Department shall be designated, by rotation, from amongst the Professors in the Department appointed by way of direct recruitment or by way of promotion or by any other method approved by the Senate, according to length of service as such in the Punjab University, irrespective of the method of appointment.

(b) In case the length of service as Professors appointed by way of direct recruitment or by way of promotion or by any other method approved by the Senate is equal, then the Chairperson/Head will be designated on the basis of their inter-se seniority in the lower cadre. However, from amongst Professors directly recruited on the same day by the same Selection Committee, their turn for designation as Chairperson/Head shall be determined on the basis of the ranking approved by the Senate.

(ii) xxx xxx

2.2. xxx xxx

2.3. A person designated as Chairperson/Head of the Department shall hold office as such for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for designation for the second time till all the Professors/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in the Department have been designated as Chairperson/Head in accordance with Rule 2.1.

However, where no other Professor/Associate Professor/Assistan