Mangalore University appointed a professor illegally: High Court

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Dec 06, 2014: The Karnataka High Court has ruled that the appointment of an assistant professor by the Mangalore University was “illegal”.

In a particular case (writ petition 17475/2014) the court also said that “…carrying forward of the vacancy lost to rural candidate to the next recruitment is arbitrary…”

There was a hue and cry against certain appointments by the university early this year when T.C. Shivashankara Murthy was the Vice-Chancellor with allegations that the selection process was not proper and rules had been violated.

In a particular case, Srinath B.S., who was an applicant to the post of assistant professor at the university’s Micro Biology Department, Post-Graduate Centre, Chikka Aluvara, Kodagu district had questioned the appointment of Goutham S.A. to the post though Mr. Srinath was the sole candidate who had applied to the post reserved for rural (only one post) in the general merit category. The court on November 20 quashed the selection of Mr. Goutham and ordered the appointment of Mr. Srinath instead.

According to the notification of appointment by the university, the post was reserved for rural under general merit category and an applicant to the post should be an M.Sc. degree holder in Micro Biology with 55 per cent marks.

The applicant should have passed either the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET).

The petitioner had argued that he had obtained 65.05 per cent marks and had passed the SLET and he was the only rural candidate who had applied to the only one post reserved. Hence he was not only entitled but deserved to be appointed to the post. The petitioner had argued that Mr. Goutham did not qualify for the post as he had not applied under rural category.

The court did not agree with the arguments of the respondents (the university, Mr. Goutham and the Higher Education Department) that the eligibility was arrived at based on different criteria and accordingly Mr. Goutham was a Ph.d holder, suitable to the post and secured 35.10 points against 17.76 points obtained by the petitioner.

The court noted that “…the counsel for the university was candid in his admission that the notification by the university did not contain a condition of cut off marks for suitability of the candidate and that such a condition cannot be imposed in the midst of the selection process…”

 

Courtesy: The hindu