ITTYACHAN Vs. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) It is not interdiscipline conflict that has brought a professor of school of Pure and Applied Physics and a professor of Gandhian Studies and Peace Science, arrayed on opposite sides before this Court. A unique provision in the Mahatma Gandhi University Act - unique in the sense such a provision is absent in the Acts establishing the other four Universities in the State - S.10(24), is, according to learned counsel representing the petitioner, the cause of the litigation. S.10(24) reads as follows:

(2.) The dispute to be resolved is whether it is the date of the order of appointment or the date of joining duty that is relevant for deciding the seniority between professors working in different departments of the University. The order of appointment of the 3rd respondent as professor in Gandhian Studies and Peace Science is dt. 7-10-1986 whereas the order of appointment of the petitioner as professor in the Department of Pure and Applied Science is dt. 22-10-1986. When the petitioner joined the duty on 24-10-1986, the 3rd respondent joined duty only on 31-10-1986. Since the petitioner started his service under the University earlier than the 3rd respondent, the University treated him as senior to the 3rd respondent and ranked him above 3rd respondent in Ext. P1. The 3rd respondent, in his appeal before the Chancellor, contended and successfully too, that what is relevant is the date of the order of appointment and not the date of joining duty, relying on the provision contained in R.27(c) of K. S. and S. S. R.

(3.) In Statute 10 of Chap.3 of Kerala University First Statutes (which was applicable to the Gandhiji University also, till the M.G. University First Statute 1991 came into force on 11-2-1991), the provisions contained in K.S. and S.S.R. are made applicable to the University Teachers. Statute 10 reads as follows: