PANKAJ SUWALKA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have been preferred, in sum and substance, with the following prayers and for the sake of convenience, the prayer clauses are being taken from the leading case being S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.16129/2017.

(2.) The brief facts as noticed by this Court are that the petitioners are contractual/ad-hoc appointees on the post of Assistant Professor in the various colleges which are autonomous institutions of Government of Rajasthan. The appointment of the petitioners were made against the regular post after judging their eligibility and other conditions which are strictly governed by the AICTE norms. The respondents however, issued an advertisement on 01.07.2017 and the petitioners have challenged this advertisement on the ground that the petitioners who are already discharging their duties shall be substituted by newly recruited contractual persons which shall be a blatant violation of their rights. The National Project Implementation Unit, Unit of Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India invited such applications on contractual basis for Engineering Colleges under the TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Project), the funds are being disbursed for such TEQIP in accordance with the agreement reached with the World Bank and the Government of India. The project of quality improvement is for the period of 3 years. Such contractual appointment as per the petitioners was to replace the petitioners which were already working on appropriate contract and conditions.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has pointed out that the AICTE Regulations require the qualification of BE/B.Tech and ME/M.Tech for the post of Assistant Professor whereas the respondents while making a recruitment for their project of quality improvement have imposed the condition that the candidate apart from having such qualifications ought to have qualified the GATE examination as well.