UNIVERSITY OF KERALA Vs. JAYASREE P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The University of Kerala and its Vice Chancellor are the appellants before us aggrieved by the judgment dtd. 1/10/2020 of the learned Single Judge in W.P(C). No. 12289 of 2019.

(2.) The brief facts necessary for disposal of the Writ Appeal are as follows: The writ petitioners, three in number, were persons appointed as Principals of various colleges coming under the 5th respondent N.S.S. Corporate Management. It would appear that the 1st petitioner, who was an Associate Professor in Hindi at the N.S.S. Hindu College, Changanassery, was appointed based on seniority as Principal of the said college with effect from 2/6/2016. Similarly, the 2nd petitioner, who was an Associate Professor in Botany at the N.S.S. College, Kottiyam, was appointed as Principal of the said college with effect from 2/6/2016 and the 3rd petitioner, who was an Associate Professor in Malayalam at the N.S.S. College, Pandalam, was appointed as Principal in that college with effect from 2/6/2016. When the college forwarded the appointment orders to the Kerala University, to which the said colleges were affiliated, for approval of the appointments, the approval was denied, inter alia, on the contention that the selection had been effected without following the procedure contemplated under the UGC Regulations, 2010 as amended as were in vogue during the relevant time.

(3.) It needs to be clarified at this stage that there was a dispute in the State as regards whether the UGC Regulations would automatically apply to govern the minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in Universities and colleges when the University Statutes themselves had not been specifically amended to incorporate the provisions of the UGC Regulations. A Division Bench of this Court in S.N. College v. N. Raveendran [2001 (3) KLT 938] had held that the conditions of service of teachers of affiliated colleges had to be prescribed by the University concerned in terms of the Act governing the same, and that, in the absence of any amendment being made to the University Act or the Regulations framed thereunder, the UGC Regulations, 2010 would be inapplicable. Inasmuch as the said decision of the Division Bench of this Court held the field till much later, when the said view of the Division Bench was doubted by this Court and a Full Bench decision reported in Radhakrishna Pillai v. Travancore Devaswom Board [2016 (2) KLT 245] found that the UGC Regulations would apply irrespective of an actual amendment of the University Acts and Regulations so long as the UGC Regulations have been specifically adopted by the Government by a Government Order, the college in question did not follow the specific procedure prescribed under the UGC Regulations, 2010 while effecting the appointments of the petitioners as Principals.