Fill All VC, Faculty & Staff Vacancies In Higher Educational Institutions : Supreme Court

Holding that chronic faculty shortages and prolonged vacancies in institutional leadership directly contribute to academic pressure, poor mentorship and student distress, the Supreme Court has issued a firm direction that all vacant teaching and non-teaching posts in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) be filled within four months, and that key administrative posts such as Vice-Chancellors and Registrars be filled within one month of arising.A Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan made it clear that retirement dates are known well in advance and that leadership and faculty voids cannot be allowed to persist at the cost of student well-being. The Court further directed that priority be given to filling posts reserved for marginalised and underrepresented communities, including persons with disabilities, and permitted special recruitment drives to clear long-standing backlogs.The directions were issued after considering an interim report submitted by a National Task Force constituted by the Court to examine the alarming rise in student suicides across the country.BackgroundThe proceedings arose from Amit Kumar and others v. Union of India and others, in which the Supreme Court had earlier, by a judgment dated March 24, 2025, clarified the law on mandatory registration of FIRs upon disclosure of a cognizable offence and reminded educational institutions of their legal and moral obligation to lodge FIRs in cases of student suicides on campus.Taking note of repeated reports of student suicides from across the country, the Court decided that the issue required a systemic response rather than a case-by-case approach. It accordingly constituted a National Task Force with a broad mandate to identify predominant causes of student suicides, analyse existing legal and institutional frameworks, and recommend preventive, remedial and reformative measures to ensure mental well-being in HEIs.The interim report of the Task Force, now considered by the Court, painted a grim picture of student distress and identified structural deficiencies within institutions as key contributors.Vacancies as a structural stressorOne of the recurring themes emerging from the Task Force's surveys, institutional visits and stakeholder consultations was the acute shortage of faculty and administrative staff across public and private HEIs.The Court noted that students repeatedly flagged excessive academic pressure arising from faculty shortages, overburdened teachers, vacant teaching posts, and heavy reliance on inexperienced guest faculty. In research-intensive institutions, particularly those offering PhD programmes, students spoke of burnout, financial stress and uneven supervisory relationships aggravated by lack of adequate faculty strength. Medical students highlighted exploitative academic cultures and on-call hours stretching far beyond prescribed limits, while engineering students pointed to intense placement-driven academic pressure.The Bench observed that prolonged vacancies in leadership posts such as Vice-Chancellors and Registrars further weaken institutional governance, grievance redressal and accountability. It therefore directed that such posts must ordinarily be filled within one month of falling vacant, and in any event without delay, stressing that advance planning is both possible and necessary.To ensure accountability, HEIs have been directed to annually report to the Central and State Governments the number of reserved posts lying vacant, posts filled, reasons for non-filling and time taken for recruitment."Keeping in mind the faculty shortages which have been reported in several HEIs, both public and private, it must be ensured that all vacant faculty positions (both teaching and non-teaching) be filled within a period of four months, with priority given to posts reserved for candidates from marginalized and underrepresented communities including those posts reserved for PwDs. Special recruitment drives may be held for faculty recruitment that come under various forms of reservations as per central and state government rules. Appointment and filling of vacancies of the post of Vice- Chancellor, Registrars, and other key institutional/administrative positions, must also be made within a period of four months. Moreover, it must be ensured as a matter of practice that, these positions are filled within a period of one month from the date on which the vacancy arises, in order to ensure the smooth functioning of HEIs. Since the date of retirement is known much ahead in time, recruitment processes must begin well in advance to ensure that such posts do not remain vacant for more than a month. All HEIs must report on an annual basis to the Central and relevant State Governments, as to how many reserved posts are vacant, how many are filled, reasons for non-filling, time taken, etc., so that periodic accountability is ensured."Student suicides as a systemic issueBeyond vacancies, the Court placed the problem of...

Fill All VC, Faculty & Staff Vacancies In Higher Educational Institutions : Supreme Court

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The Court set timelines for the filling up of the vacancies.

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