SUBRATA MUKHERJEE Vs. ACHIN VINAYAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of the writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ to respondent nos. 2 and 3 to remove respondent no. 1 from the post of Head of Department ("HoD" for brevity) of Political Science being junior to the petitioner and not eligible for the said post.

(2.) The facts necessary for deciding the present petition are that the petitioner is a professor in the department of political science at respondent no. 2 University of Delhi. A detailed bio profile of the petitioner has been given in the petition which shows that the petitioner has been a Reader at respondent no. 2 from 1979 to 1989 and a Professor at respondent no. 2 since 1989 and retired as Professor in the Department in January, 2006 and subsequently from the re-employment in January 2009. The petitioner claims to be the senior most professor in the department of political science and therefore, has challenged the appointment of respondent no. 1 to the post of HoD of the said department by this writ petition on the basis that respondent no. 1 does not possess the requisite qualifications for the same.

(3.) The petitioners grievance is that respondent no. 1 is qualified with only a B.Sc. degree in which he obtained a second division. Allegedly, respondent no. 1 does not have a basic degree in the subject of political science and has falsely shown himself to be a holder of a doctorate degree though he is not one. Further, he has teaching experience of one year and seven months and no experience of guiding research at the doctoral level which implies that he is wanting in the mandatory requirements prescribed for the post for which he has been selected. The respondent no. 1 also has no academic articles to reckon with and is thus stated to be inadequately qualified for the post of professor as well as HoD of the political science department at the respondent no. 2 University.