PROF. NARENDRA SINGH BHANDARI Vs. RAVINDRA JUGRAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dtd. 10/11/2021 passed by the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital in Writ Petition No. 190/2020, by which the High Court has allowed the said writ petition preferred by respondent No.1 herein and has quashed and set aside the appointment of the appellant herein - original respondent No.5 as the Vice-Chancellor of Soban Singh Jeena University (hereinafter referred to as the 'University'), original respondent No.5 - Vice-Chancellor of the said University has preferred the present appeal.

(2.) That the appellant herein was appointed as Professor and worked as such for the period between 23/5/2009 to 7/10/2017 till he was appointed as Member of the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission. That thereafter he was appointed by the State Government as ViceChancellor of the University by order dtd. 11/8/2020. He assumed the charge as Vice-Chancellor on 13/8/2020. The appointment of the appellant was challenged before the High Court by way of present writ petition, inter alia, on the ground that at the time when he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor, i.e., on 11/8/2020, he was not having the requisite experience of minimum 10 years as Professor, which was required as per the University Grants Commission Regulations, 2018 (for short, 'UGC Regulations, 2018') which were adopted by the State Government.

(3.) We have heard Shri P.S. Patwalia, learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the appellant - Vice-Chancellor of the University, Shri Sanjay Parikh, learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of respondent No.1 - original writ petitioner, Shri Atul Sharma, learned Advocate for the State, Shri Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission and Shri Harmeet Singh Ruprah, learned Advocate appearing for the University.