Universities Must Follow University Grants Commission's Guidelines : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently observed that universities are obligated to follow the University Grants Commission guidelines.The Court made this observation while disposing of a case filed against the Banaras Hindu University(BHU).A bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi was dealing with the case pertaining to 2013 appointments to the post of Assistant Professors.The process of appointments was challenged by the petitioners, Dharmendra Kumar and Brijesh Kumar Tiwari, as devoid of transparency and not in conformity with the UGC Regulations, 2013, as per which 50 per cent weightage is to be given to academic record, 30 per cent to teaching skills, and only 20 per cent to the interview. As per brief facts, in 2013, the BHU conducted interviews for the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Commerce. As per the petitioner Brijesh, out of 400 candidates, he was ranked first on all merit parameters, including API score, quality score, screening score, and teaching ability score. It was his case that he was not appointed, and his name was kept on the waiting list. Instead, candidates with lower merit were selected mainly because of the interview. A similar approach was adopted by petitioner Dharmendra by the Agriculture Department.In 2014, the petitioner Brijesh filed a writ petition, which was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court in 2016, against which he filed a special leave petition. In 2016, a bench comprising Justice J. Chelmeshwar and Justice AM Sapre issued notice and granted interim status quo on the appointment during the pendency of these proceedings.When the matter was taken up, the petitioners' advocate, Vanshaja Shukla, informed the Court that Brijesh is currently serving as a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Dharmedra is serving as a professor at the Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, and therefore no longer wish to continue this litigation.She relied on this year's order in which the Supreme Court held that once a State adopts the UGC Regulations, it has to be mandatorily followed. She pointed out that BHU had adopted the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2010, in August 2010 and continued to adopt the amended Regulations.In view of this submission, the civil appeals were disposed of with an observation that henceforth the selection process at BHU must be governed by the UGC's Regulations, which are amended from time to time."It is needless to say that the respondent-University or any other University who are governed under University Grants Commission Regulation, 2013, as amended from time to time, are enjoined and obligated to follow the University Grants Commission guidelines," the bench observed.Case Details: DR. DHARMENDRA KUMAR v. BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY THR. ITS VICE CHANCELLOR. & ORS.Click Here To Read OrderAppearances: For Appellant(s) Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR Ms. Ankeeta Appanna, Adv. Mr. Siddhant Yadav, Adv.For Respondent(s) Mr. P.N. Ravindran, Sr. Adv. Mr. T. V. George, AOR Mr. Pankaj Bisht, Adv. Mr. Vijay Rawat, Adv. Mr. Karan Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Ashutosh Dubey, Adv. Mr. Annam Venkatesh, AOR Mr. Rahul Mishra, Adv. Mr. Amit P. Shahi, Adv. Ms. Agrimaa Singh, Adv. Mr. T. V. George, AOR Mr. Annam Venkatesh, AOR Mr. Abhishek Yadav, AOR Mr. Vishwa Pal Singh, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar, AOR Mr. Satish Kumar, AOR Ms. Harshita Raghuvanshi, Adv. Mr. Rohit Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Shashank Kumar, Adv. Mr. Vishwa Pal Singh, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar, AOR Ms. Anjana Sharma, Adv. Mr. Bhupendra Pathak, Adv. Mr. Abhaya Nath Das, Adv. Ms. Monica Goel, Adv. Mr. Raj Kumar Mishra, Adv. Mr. Chandan Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Mishra, Adv. Mr. Vinod Kumar Shukla, Adv. Ms. Palak Joshi, Adv. Mr. Hukum Deo Prasad, Adv. Mr. Kishor Kumar Mishra, Adv. Dr. Aditya Mishra, Adv. Mr. Prashant Kumar, Adv. Mr. Satish Kumar, AOR

Universities Must Follow University Grants Commission's Guidelines : Supreme Court

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

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