| CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday quashed the Haryana government's notification, making PhD holders ineligible for assistant professors' posts in state-run colleges.
The court has also directed the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) to extend the last date of advertisement issued by it on January 24 for filling 1,396 posts of assistant professors to enable the PhD holders to submit their applications.
A division bench headed by Justice Jasbir Singh issued the orders while allowing a petition against Haryana government's decision, prescribing selection criteria for assistant professors in contravention to University Grant Commission (UGC) norms. In the selection criteria, the state government had, in violation of UGC norms, refused to exempt PhD holders from passing the national eligibility test (NET).
The HC also turned down the government's plea that PhD holders were not exempted from NET to ensure standards of teaching faculty. The matter reached the HC through a petition filed by Rajeev Mohan of Ambala and others. The petitioners had informed that on January 24, the HPSC had advertised 1,396 posts of assistant professors of various subjects for its college cadre in which PhD degree holders had not been considered for selection.
It was submitted that the UGC norms say that those candidates who have been awarded PhD in compliance with UGC (minimum standards and procedure for award of PhD) regulation 2009 have been permanently exempted from passing NET. These rules were also adopted by the Haryana government.
It was further informed that on September 3, 2013, the Haryana government framed rules in which it deleted the exemption clause in violation of UGC guidelines.
The petitioners argued that despite being fully qualified as per UGC norms the applications of PhD holders were not being considered online by the HPSC. |