AMRIT LAL SHARMA Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants, who were the writ petitioners, are aggrieved by the dismissal of the writ petition wherein they had challenged the selection of respondents No. 4 to 13 to the post of Lecturer (College Cadre) Class -I (Gazetted) which was filled up on the basis of an advertisement issued by the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission. The screening test was held on 16.1.2009 and thereafter the interviews were held between 16.3.2009 till 20.3.2009.

(2.) THE learned counsel for the appellants has contested the appeal mainly on the ground that the constitution of the Selection Committee was not as per the notification issued by the University Grants Commission on Revision of Pay Scale, minimum qualification for appointments of teachers in University, College and Other measures for the Maintenance of Standards, 1998. He further contended that the Public Service Commission should have invited atleast three subject experts and associated the Himachal Pradesh University in the selection as mandated by the instructions issued by the UGC which instructions were binding upon the Public Service Commission. He also argued that the Principals and Head of the Department were necessarily required to be included in the Selection Committee. He lastly contended that respondent No. 14 should not have been called as an expert for this selection because the respondents No. 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 had remained her students and, therefore, favouritism was writ large.

(3.) IT was further held that in terms of the Rules of Business of the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission, 2007, the Interview Board was required to be constituted by the Chairman and in addition to that experts and the departmental representatives comprising of as many Members as it may be deemed fit in view of the class of post for which the interviews is to be conducted were required to be associated. The Committee in this case had been constituted by the Public Service Commission and comprised of Sh. L.S. Thakur, Member, H.P. Public Service Commission, Dr. Saroj Ghosh, subject matter expert and Mrs. Manjula Sharma, Principal, Government College, Jukhala, who was the departmental nominee. The plea of the appellants that the Selection Committee should have been constituted as per the University Grants Commission was rejected in view of the detailed procedure provided for selection and appointments in the Recruitment and Promotion Rules framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India. It was further held that it was for the State or the University to adopt the regulations framed by the University Grants Commission and the same were not ipso facto binding on the State Government.