KIRANDEEP KAUR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petition challenges the selection and appointment made to the post of Lecturer in Guru Nanak Studies in the 2nd respondent-Guru Nanak Dev University at Amritsar. The petitioner is a Postgraduate in Religious Studies from the Punjabi University and amongst the subjects in his M.A., one of the subjects was Philosophy of Religion and another was Philosophy of Sikhism. She has done her Directorate in Philosophy in "Guru Granth Sahib Vich Pat Da Sankalp". The advertisement was issued by the University on 03.05.2010 for appointment to the post of Lecturer in "Guru Nanak Studies". The qualification, which is necessary as per the UGC norms for Lecturer is good academic record with at least 55% of the marks or an equivalent grade of B in the 7 point scale with letter grade O, A, B, C, D, E and F at the Master's degree level in the relevant subject from an Indian University or an equivalent degree from a foreign University,

(2.) Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the University points out that the Department of Guru Nanak Studies is truly inter-disciplinary in nature and runs the following courses as inter-disciplinary departments. "M.A, Religious Studies, M.Phil Religious Studies, M.A. Philosophy and M.Phil Philosophy. " Any person having passed Master's Degree in any of the subjects in Punjabi, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Sanskrit, Sociology is eligible for the post of Lecturer in the Department of Guru Nanak Studies. The counsel would refer to the list of at least 11 names, who possessed Master's degree in various studies other than Religious Studies and out of the 11 names set out in the written statement, 4 persons had done Master's degree in Punjabi, 1 person in Sanskrit, 3 persons in History, 2 persons in Philosophy and 1 in Sociology. The attempt of the University was, therefore, to show that it is not essential that a person must be a Master's graduate in Religious Studies per se but any allied study, which is in any subject that has a bearing to the various courses, which are offered by the University themselves could be appropriate. Learned counsel would also contend that the persons, who were the interviewers, were persons drawn from various fields of specialization and all of them were not religious exponents and even amongst the various departments, there had been several persons, who had Postgraduate or doctoral works in pure languages. Learned counsel would also point out to the candidates, who had responded to advertisement for the same post, who were all not essentially in Religious Studies but who had done their Post-graduation or M.Phil Courses in Language Studies.

(3.) The 3rd respondent, the selected candidate, has filed a reply pointing out, inter alia, that apart from the fact that Department of Guru Nanak Study was inter-disciplinary in character, the Courses contained for religion and selected civilization included a wide variety of subjects that did not necessarily deal with Religious Studies. Even the Department of Guru Nanak Studies set up in 1971 had its object the study and research on the life of Guru Nanak Dev and their cultural and religious impact in the context of Indian and World Civilization. The Department an inter-disciplinary as well as teaching-cum-research oriented and it is, therefore, wrong on the part of the petitioner to contend that a Post-graduate and a Directorate in Languages could not be taken as duly qualified. The counsel also states that the 3rd respondent had obtained a Doctorate in Semiotic in "Bani Shri Guru Teg Bahadur" and according to him, the 3rd respondent was not essentially specialized only in Punjabi language study and the vehicle to that of great religious expositions themselves could be only through a language and Punjabi was a very important vehicle to understand the teachings and the religious texts.