Promotions to the post of Professor must comply with U.G.C. regulations requiring eight years of service as Reader, and failure to provide a hearing before annulling promotions violates principles of natural justice.

ORDER :

1. These bunch of petitions raise similar issue. One of the petition namely W.P. No. 5984/2005 is at the behest of the complainant Professor Vijay Kumar Agrawal claiming that he was appointed as 'Lecturer' in Chemistry on 28/01/1985. Thereafter, he was directly recruited and appointed as 'Reader' in Awadhesh Pratap Singh University w.e.f. 30/09/1993 and then his case was considered for promotion to the post of 'Professor' under the Career Advancement Scheme in the University departments and in terms of said Career Advancement Scheme, he was granted promotion from the post of 'Reader' to 'Professor' w.e.f. 30th September, 2001 Annexure P-12.

2. Petitioner's grievance is that private respondents i.e. respondent nos. 4 to 11 out of whom, some of the private respondents have filed individual petitions before this High Court namely, Dr. Rahasyamani Mishra petitioner in W.P. No. 9793/2019, respondent no. 9; Dr. Anjali Shrivastava, respondent no. 10; Ms. Deepa Shrivastava & Dr. Rajiv Dubey who are petitioners in W.P. No. 10150/2019; respondent no. 7 Dadan Prasad Tiwari petitioner in W.P. No. 10042/2019; and respondent no. 8 Dr. C.D. Singh petitioner in W.P. No. 9937/2019 were granted promotion as 'Professor' in violation of the U.G.C. norms and the University regulations from a date when they had not completed eight years of service as 'Reader' which is a mandatory requirement according to the petitioner Dr. Vijay Kumar Agrawal. Thus, giving them an undue march over the petitioner in the cadre of 'Professor'.

3. Consequently in the said petition, relief is sought to set aside the orders Annexures P-12 and P-13 dated 8/10/2003 and 24/04/2004 as they adversely affect the petitioner and to command respondent nos. 1, 2 and 3 to restore the seniority of the petitioner.

4. The private respondents have filed their individual petitions mainly challenging the orders passed by the Secretary and His Excellency the Governor and Chancellor of Awadhesh Pratap Singh University, Rewa annulling the promotion orders of individuals namely Dr. Smt. Ugam Kumari Chauhan, Dr. Ajay Kumar Awasthy, Dr. Rahasyamani Mishra, Dr. C.D. Singh, Dr. Anjali Shrivastava, Dr. Deepa Shrivastava, Dr. Rajiv Dubey and Dr. Dadan Prasad Tiwari treating them to be in violation of the Ordinance No. 4 (B) under Madhya Pradesh Universities Act, 1973 and also being in violation of the instructions issued by the University Grants Commission from time to time.

5. Shri Anil Khare, learned Senior Advocate, Shri K.C. Ghildiyal, learned Senior Advocate, Shri Sanjay K. Agrawal, learned Advocate, Shri Arpan Pawar, learned counsel and Shri Vibhudendra Mishra, learned counsel are heard. Shri Vibhudendra Mishra, learned counsel appearing for Dr. Vijay Kumar Agrawal submits that his only grievance is that the private respondents could not have stolen march over the petitioner Dr. Vijay Kumar Agrawal as they were junior to him in the cadre of 'Reader' and in violation of the Ordinance and other provisions contained in the U.G.C. regulations, they have been given a march over the petitioner and thus with the passing of the order Annexure P-17 in W.P. No. 10150/2019, his grievance stands ventilated if the said order which is under challenge in the connected writ petitions filed at the instance of the private respondents is maintained.

6. Shri Anil Khare, learned Senior Advocate submits that he will be addressing the court treating W.P. No. 10150/2019 as the lead case and will be referring to the documents annexed therewith. He submits that Annexure P-16 is the order of promotion dated 8/10/2003 whereby promotion to the post of 'Professor' was given from different dates starting from 2nd November, 2000. (Dr. Smt. Ugam Kumari Chouhan 19th November, 2004), (Dr. Ajay Kumar Awasthy 19th November, 2004), (Dr. Rahasyamani Mishra - 19th January, 2000), (Dr. Anjali Shrivastava 30th January, 2002), (Dr. Deepa Shrivastava 15th July, 2002), (Dr. Rajiv Dube 16th July, 2002) and Dr. Chandradev Singh was giv