IMPORTANT POINT
The central legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation and application of the UGC Regulation, 2018, particularly regarding the eligibility criteria for the post of Associate Professor.

JUDGMENT

1. Heard Mr. T. Rajendra, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Mr. B.P. Sahu, learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents No. 1 and 2, Mr. I. Denning, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 3 and Mr. Kh. Samarjit, learned ASG appearing for the respondent No. 4.

2. The present writ petition had been filed with the prayer for directing the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 to allow the petitioner to face the Interview for the post of Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University and for considering the petitioner for appointment to the said post.

The brief fact of the case is that the Manipur University issued an advertisement dated 27-05-2019 inviting applications from the Indian Nationals for filling up a number of posts, including two posts of Professor and five posts of Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences. Pursuant to the said advertisement, the petitioner submitted his application form for the post of Professor and Associate Professor in Life Sciences. Subsequently, the Registrar of the Manipur University published the list of eligible candidates for Personal Interview for the aforesaid posts of Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences. In the said list, the name of three persons were notified for the posts of Professor and the name of sixteen persons were notified initially and later on, the name of fourteen persons were notified as eligible candidates for the posts of Associate Professor. In the said two lists, the name of the petitioner was not included. Having been aggrieved, the petitioner approached this court by filing the present writ petition for redressing his grievances. As the petitioner's prayer in the present writ petition confines to the post of Associate Professor only, this Court will confine the consideration of the eligibility of the petitioner for the post of Associate Professor only.

3. Mr. T. Rajendra, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that in the said advertisement dated 27-05-2019, it has been clearly mentioned that the eligibility of the candidates will be determined as per the essential qualifications prescribed in the UGC Regulation, 2018. The eligibility of a candidate for the post of Associate Professor as prescribed in the said UGC Regulation, 2018 are as under -

'Associate Professor:

Eligibility:

(i) A good academic record, with a Ph.D. Degree in the concerned/ allied /relevant disciplines.

(ii) A Master's degree with atleast 55 percent marks (or an equivalent grade in a point-scale, wherever, the grading system is followed).

(iii) A minimum of eight years of experience of teaching and /or research in an academic/ research position equivalent to that of Assistant Professor in a University/ College or Accredited Research Institution/ Industry with a minimum of seven publications in the peer-reviewed or UGC-listed journals and a total research score of Seventy Five (75) as per the criteria given in Appendix II, Table 2'.

4. According to the learned counsel, the petitioner possessed all the essential qualifications and is well qualified and eligible for the post of Associate Professor in Life Sciences and that the petitioner is entitled to be considered for appointment to the said post, however the respondents No. 1 and 2 did not include the name of the petitioner in the list of eligible candidates notified by the Manipur University. The reasons given by the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 in their counter affidavit for non-inclusion of the name of the petitioner in the list of eligible candidates is that his case was considered by the University Recruitment Screening Grievance Redressal Cell of Manipur University and rejected his candidature due to non-fulfilment of the UGC Guidelines as the total period he had worked in a position equivalent to that of an Assistant Professor is less than eight years as he was drawing total gross emolument less than the monthly gross salary of a regularly ap