E. VENKATESAN Vs. REGISTRAR, PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed challenging the order dtd. 30/11/2022 thereby rejected the representation submitted by the petitioner seeking to allow him to participate in the interview for the post of Assistant Professor in Computer Science (Karaikal Campus) and to appoint him in the said post.

(2.) The first respondent issued notification for recruitment of various faculty position vide advertisement dtd. 5/8/2019. Thereafter, corrigendum was also issued dtd. 29/10/2019. Once again, the first respondent issued re-notification dtd. 6/7/2020 and accordingly three vacancies have been notified for the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Karaikal Campus. The petitioner had applied for the said post enclosing his educational qualification certificates, teaching experience certificates as well as publications and award granted to him. The method of selection is based on 'academic performance indicators' (API) scores as per Table 3A of University Grants Commission Regulations, 2018. Accordingly, candidates were shortlisted for interview for the post of Assistant Professor. As per the qualification of the petitioner, he had scored 85 marks and he was in anticipation of getting call letter to attend the interview. However, after submission of his application, he had not received any communication from the first respondent. However, other persons were called for interview for the said post.

(3.) The learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that the first respondent without following the procedure established by law and without any proper assessment of merit in selection, selected the candidates. In fact, the selection was conducted without even disclosing the process of selection, shortlisting the candidates for interview, the list of selected candidates, etc at any point of time. The method of selection is based on API score of Table-3A of UGC Regulations, 2018. The Table 3A prescribes the criteria for shortlisted candidates for interview to the post of Assistant Professor in Universities. Accordingly, minimum 10 marks to be awarded for teaching experience and 3 marks to be awarded for Awards (international / national level). The petitioner is qualified with B.Sc. Computer Science, M.Sc. Computer Science, Ph.D. Computer Science. He has teaching experience from 1/8/2017 to 31/5/2018, 1/6/2018 to 22/2/2019 and 25/2/2019 to 24/7/2020 till the submission of application. His teaching experience was also duly certified by the concerned colleges. Therefore, he is entitled for 6 marks for teaching experience as per the certificates produced by him. However, the first respondent awarded zero mark for teaching experience. He further submitted that insofar as awards, he was awarded zero marks. The petitioner was granted with Young Researcher in Computer Science Award for the year 2017 by the Integrated Intelligent Research, a national level organisation for which the petitioner is entitled for three marks as per UGC Regulations. Therefore, the petitioner is very much qualified for selection to the post of Assistant Professor in Computer Science.