NAIR SERVICE SOCIETY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In W.P.(C) No.12448 of 2020, petitioners, three in number, are duly qualified aspirants for appointment as Assistant Professors in various Colleges and Universities. They have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenging Exts.P19, P20 & P21 notifications dated 01.04.2020, 25.05.2020 & 27.04.2020 respectively.

(2.) All the petitioners, on the basis of their qualifications vide Exts.P1 to P10, allege that the University Grants Commission Scheme (hereinafter referred to as 'UGC Scheme', for short) including the revision of pay scale was implemented in the State of Kerala with effect from 01.01.1986 by order dated 13.03.1990. Guidelines regarding the minimum number of actual teaching days and also the workload of the teachers in Universities and Colleges were incorporated in Appendix V of another order dated 27.03.1990 Ext.P11. In Appendix V, the teaching hours for Under Graduate College was prescribed as 16 hours whereas for Post Graduate (hereinafter referred to as 'PG' for short) Courses only 10 hours i.e., for the purpose of calculating workload of PG Department one hour of teaching classes shall be treated as equivalent to 1.6 hours of teaching in degree class.

(3.) The aforementioned practice was in force for several years and later the Government of Kerala after considering the academic aspects of work load and teaching days in colleges in Kerala consequent to the implementation of the UGC Scheme issued another Government Order dated 03.01.2001 that the maximum teaching work for any teacher shall not exceed 16 hours per week as envisaged in UGC Scheme and one teaching hour for PG class be equated as 1 1/2 hours of Under Graduate (hereinafter referred to as ' UG', for short) work. The Government had taken such decision after considering the report submitted by the committee, appointed for studying the issue.