HC bars fresh academic arrangements of APs, others

Srinagar, Sep 1:  The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has barred the government from making fresh academic arrangements against clear vacancies of Assistant Professors (APs), Librarians, and Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) borne on the Jammu and Kashmir Education Gazetted Colleges Service Recruitment Rules 2008.

The aggrieved candidates had filed related pleas against the decision of Central Administrative Tribunal and claimed that they were engaged on an academic arrangement basis and have been continuously working in the Higher Education Department as contractual lecturers in different disciplines since 2003.

Others contended that they have been working since 2006 against such clear vacancies.

Deciding the batch of pleas, a division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar asked the government to form within a month a high-level committee, even as the court ordered that all such vacant posts be immediately referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission for selection (JKPSC).

The High-Level Committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary (CS), with the Secretaries to Government, Department of Higher Education, General Administration Department, Finance Department and Law Department as its members, the court said.

“The Committee shall also examine the desirability of creating additional posts of teaching faculty, Librarians, and PTIs in various degree colleges to meet the current and future demand of admissions and shall take requisite steps for creation of such additional posts, to be filled up only under the Jammu and Kashmir Education Gazetted Colleges Service Recruitment Rules 2008 Jammu and Kashmir Rules through a selection process conducted by the Public Service Commission.”

The Court said the Committee within two months would embark upon an exercise to identify those candidates who were appointed as Assistant Professors, Librarians or PTIs prior to the commencement of (Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act, 2010), against clear vacant posts who were in position on the said date and who have rendered continuous service for a period of seven years or more.

“Such candidates who are found by the Committee to have been appointed against vacant posts prior to the commencement of the Act of 2010, and who satisfy the eligibility criteria shall be considered for regularization under the Act of 2010 within one month thereafter,” the Court said.

The Court added that the regularization of those found entitled under the Act shall be given retrospective effect from the date they are found eligible for such regularization.

(That is) those who completed continuous service of seven years on or before the commencement of the Act of 2010 shall be regularized from the date of commencement of the Act, while those who completed seven years of service after the commencement of the Act shall be regularized from the date on which they actually completed seven years of continuous service”.

The court said that no fresh academic arrangements would be made by the Government against clear vacancies of Assistant Professors, Librarians, and PTIs borne on the Jammu and Kashmir Education Gazetted Colleges Service Recruitment Rules 2008 and efforts shall be made to immediately refer all such vacant posts to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission for selection.

The Committee shall also examine the desirability of creating additional posts of teaching faculty, Librarians, and PTIs in various degree colleges to meet the current and future demand of admissions and shall take requisite steps for creation of such additional posts, to be filled up only under the Jammu and Kashmir Education Gazetted Colleges Service Recruitment Rules 2008 Jammu and Kashmir Rules through a selection process conducted by the Public Service Commission.”

The Court further said all academic arrangements made de hors the vacancies or outside the sanctioned strength of Assistant Professors, Librarians, and PTIs would be dispensed with from the next academic session, unless such engagements are required to meet the exigency of the situation obtaining in the next academic year and thereafter.

“Any such engagements, if made, shall be treated as fresh engagements, purely contractual in nature, and shall not confer any right of regularization under any law in force or that may be framed by the Government in future,” it said.  “These directions shall not be applicable to Teaching Associates engaged on contractual basis and their engagements shall be governed by the terms and conditions of their appointments.”

In the judgment the court observed that the authorities have “undoubtedly compromised both the quality of faculty and the standard of education imparted in the Government Degree Colleges of Jammu and Kashmir by resorting to academic arrangements from time to time, and by picking up candidates solely on the basis of academic merit without subjecting them to the arduous selection process conducted by JKPSC.