IMPORTANT POINT
Eligibility for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme requires active service status on the date of consideration, as per UGC Regulations.

JUDGMENT :

Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J.

Petitioner was appointed as Lecturer (Political Science) in a government aided Post Graduate College, namely, Sri Guru Ram Rai PG College, Dehradun, and she joined duties as such on 15.11.1989. Petitioner was given designation of Associate Professor w.e.f. 01.01.2006. She completed age of superannuation on 09.10.2018. She is aggrieved by rejection of her claim for promotion as Professor under Career Advancement Scheme by the Director, Higher Education. The Director has held that petitioner was not in service on 11.11.2019, when Screening-cum-Selection Committee was constituted, therefore, she is not eligible for promotion.

2. By means of this writ petition, petitioner has sought the following reliefs:-

“(i) To issue writ, order, rule or direction in the nature of certiorari to quash the letters of Director of Higher Education of Uttarakhand No. Degree-Arth/Ek-3-1(11)/3194/201-20 dated 20.08.2020 and No. Degree/Arth/EK-3-1(11)/5296/2020-21 dated 20.10.2020 (contained in Annexure Nos. 28 & 30 respectively.

(ii) To issue writ, order, rule or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents 1 & 2 (Principal Secretary & Director of Higher Education of Uttarakhand) to sanction the CAS personal promotion to Professor designation & grade pay under UGC-Regulations-2010 to the petitioner from her eligibility date 27th June,2016 as per unanimous recommendation for the sanction of Professor designation & grade pay to the petitioner by the duly constituted Screening cum Evaluation Committee meeting held on 11.11.2019.”

3. The order passed by Director, impugned in this writ petition, is on record as Annexure-28 to the writ petition. In the said order, Director has referred to Clause-C (7) of the Career Advancement Scheme adopted by the State Government, vide Government Order dated 28.05.2013, which reads as under:-

“(7) The incumbent teacher must be on the role and active service of the University/College on the date of consideration by the Screening cum Evaluation Committee for CAS promotion.”

4. Admittedly, petitioner completed age of superannuation on 09.10.2018, thus, she was not on the role and active service of the college on the date of consideration by the Screening-cum-Evaluation Committee.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner’s claim for promotion was not only considered but also recommended by the Screening-cum-Selection Committee, therefore, Director’s order is unsustainable in the eyes of law. He further submits that delay in constituting Selection Committee was not attributable to the petitioner, therefore, petitioner could not be denied the benefit available to her, as per UGC Regulations. He refers to UGC 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, 2010. Relevant clauses of the aforesaid Regulations are extracted below:-

“6.3.8. CAS promotions being a personal promotion to the incumbent teacher holding a substantive sanctioned post, on superannuation of the individual incumbent, the said post shall revert back to its original cadre.

6.3.9 The incumbent teacher must be on the role and active service of the Universities/Colleges on the date of consideration by the Selection Committee for Selection/CAS Promotion.

6.4.10. Ten percent of the positions of Professors in a university, with a minimum of ten years of teaching and research experience as professor either in the pre-revised scale of Professor’s pay or the revised scale pay will be eligible for promotion to the higher grade of Professorship (stage 6), on satisfying the required API score as per Tables I and II through the PBAS methodology stipulated in these Regulations through a duly constituted Expert committee, and such teachers promoted to the higher grade shall continue to be designated as ‘Professor’. As this AGP elevation for Professor is applicable to only universi