Communal Reservation In University Appointments: High Court Upholds Amendments To Kerala University Act

The Kerala High Court on Monday set aside a Single Judge's verdict quashing a notification issued by the University of Kerala on the appointment of 58 teachers treating all the posts in the categories of professors/associate professors/assistant professors in various teaching departments of the university as one category for the purposes of community reservation.A Division Bench comprising Justice A.K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Nias C.P passed the order while allowing appeals filed by the University of Kerala and the State Government against the single judge's ruling that had also quashed an amendment brought to the university statutes in this regard.The significant question before the Court was whether for the purposes of applying the rules of communal reservation, the grouping of teaching posts carrying similar pay scales, duties and responsibilities, albeit in different subjects, can be seen as arbitrary and therefore illegal and unconstitutional.The Court noted that the Centre had recognised the principle of treating the university/college/institution as a single unit for the purposes of reservation of posts in direct recruitment in the teachers' cadre.Similarly, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had also issued instructions to all Central and State universities and deemed universities coming under its purview to adopt the said practice in the respective educational institutions falling under their jurisdiction. The aforesaid facts fortify the contentions of the appellant State and university that the amendments brought about in the university statute could not be seen as unreasonable or arbitrary, the court observed.Accordingly, the Court observed that it did not find that the impugned amendments to the Kerala University Act to be vitiated on any ground that would render them unconstitutional. Consequently, the action taken by the University based on the said amendments including those taken pursuant to the University Order dated 25.10.2017 and the Notification dated 27.11.2017 were upheld.As such, the appeals were allowed.Facts:Based on the statutory provisions as they stood prior to 2014, the Universities in the State had been categorising the teaching and non-teaching posts department/subject wise while applying the reservation principles enumerated in the Kerala State and Subordinate Service Rules, 1958 (KS&SSR)The amendment clubbed of posts of Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors of all departments to create separate cadres in relation to each of the above categories of posts, to apply the rules of communal rotation.The Single Judge had earlier disapproved of an amendment effected to the various University Statutes in Kerala to change the pattern of rotation while implementing the communal reservation in the services under the University, from department wise to category wise, by treating all departments as one unit.The petitioners challenged the amendments contending that the clubbing of posts of assistant professors, associate professors and professors of all departments to create separate cadres in relation to each of these posts and applying the rules of communal rotation to those cadres would be tantamount to providing 100% reservation in single post cadres.They alleged that this was legally and constitutionally impermissible.The said writ petitions were allowed by the Single Judge by initially setting aside the recruitment notification issued by the Kerala University that indicated that communal reservation was being applied by treating all the said posts in the various teaching departments of the University as one category for the purposes of reservation. Thereafter, through a corrigendum, the judge set aside the notification of the State Government publishing the University Laws (Second Amendment) Act, as well as the University Order of the Kerala University implementing the amended provisions in the University. Contentions:The appellants raised the following arguments: The earlier method subject wise categorisation of posts had resulted in a large number of posts being categorised as a single cadre, and thereby excluded from communal reservation;The amendment restructures the cadres in such a way that there was a plurality of posts in each cadre;Cadre structuring and re-structuring, so long as it based on criteria that bear rational nexus, cannot be interfered with by the court in judicial review;At their respective levels, professors, irrespective of the subject they teach, carry the same duties, responsibilities and scale of pay and, after the adoption of the UGC Regulations, the eligibility requirements for recruitment to the posts are also the same in the respective levels. The respondents raised the following arguments: The purported object of providing greater reservation cannot justify the inclusion of dissimilar posts in a cadre while implementing the reservation principles enumerated under the KS&SSR;While examining whether teaching posts ...

Communal Reservation In University Appointments: High Court Upholds Amendments To Kerala University Act

Hannah M Varghese

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