VIVEKANAND JHA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner seeks a direction to the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Respondent No. 2, and the Union of India in the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (`HRD Ministry'), Respondent No. 1, to sanction the post of lecturer in Sociology in Rani Padmavati Tarayogtantra Adarsh Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Indrapur (Shivpur), Varanasi (UP), Respondent No. 3, and absorb the Petitioner as lecturer in Sociology in Respondent No. 3 with effect from 29th October 1998, the date on which certain other posts in Respondent No. 3 were sanctioned and lecturers absorbed.

(2.) THE Petitioner also challenges the Report of the Expert Committee (`EC') dated 15th April 1997 to the extent of non-inclusion of the Petitioner's name for such absorption. He further seeks a declaration that the office order dated 17th November 1998 issued by Respondent No. 2 declining the sanctioning of the post of lecturer in Sociology was illegal.

(3.) IN the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Respondents, it has been asserted that the EC constituted on 14th April 1997 comprising of eminent scholars and senior officers scrutinized the performance of the teaching staff, including the Petitioner and one Shri Prafulla Kumar Choudhary, who were the only two teachers teaching Sociology. Their performance was not found satisfactory. Accordingly, the EC recommended that Sociology as a subject should be dropped altogether. The abolition of the post is sought to be explained as purely an administrative action and a policy decision of the Respondents. Further, it is denied that the Petitioner possess the requisite qualification as prescribed by the University Grants Commission (`UGC') for lecturership in 1995. The stand of the Respondents is that the Petitioner did not possess a Ph. D. degree or NET in 1995 and, therefore, was not eligible to be appointed as a lecturer. He was, therefore, offered the post of a PGT in Sociology which he accepted and joined on 9th August 1995. IN an additional affidavit filed on 1st August 2007, the Petitioner stated that he had