Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court, while holding that all recommendations and guidelines of the UGC Regulations need not be compulsorily followed in the appointment of Assistant Professors in Colleges in Assam, directed the Department of Higher Education, Government of Assam, to devise the method of rationalization of marks to eliminate the discrimination or unfair advantage to a particular class of candidates.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice Suman Shyam passed the judgement and order on Tuesday in Writ Appeal No. 302/2022 filed by a group of petitioners, job aspirants having the requisite qualifications of NET, SLET, Ph.D., etc., who challenged the validity/legality of the guidelines issued vide an Office Memorandum dated January 24, 2022, by the Higher Education Department regarding the selection of Assistant Professor/Librarians in provincialized, government, and government model colleges of Assam.
The main contentions of the petitioners in the writ petition were that while adopting the UGC Regulations 2010, the Higher Education Department followed some mandatory clauses of the regulations, and on the other hand, certain mandatory provisions have been overlooked in regard to the distribution of marks to the candidates. According to the writ petitioners, a notification issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) provides that only 50% weightage is to be given to the academic qualifications. However, as per the guidelines issued by the Director of Higher Education, Assam, as modified by the guidelines dated January 24, 2022, 72% weightage has been prescribed for the academic qualifications of some candidates for the purpose of selection and appointment in the post of Assistant Professor. These are the candidates who passed out earlier and were awarded lesser marks as compared to those who passed out later.
The order held that all recommendations and guidelines of the UGC Regulations must not be compulsorily followed in the appointment of Assistant Professors in Colleges in Assam, but the Department of Higher Education, Government of Assam, is duty bound to devise the method of rationalization of marks to eliminate the discrimination or unfair advantage to a particular class of candidates, and the court further directed that the entire process of formulating the method of rationalization of marks should be concluded within a period of 6 (six) months from the passing of the latest judgement and order.
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