HC reprimands KU over ‘hire-and-fire’ policy on contractual law teachers

Srinagar, Nov 8: Coming down heavily on the University of Kashmir (KU) over its “hire and fire” approach towards contractual law teachers, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has held that an adhoc, contractual, or academic arrangement appointee could not be replaced by a similar arrangement for every academic session.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar, while deciding a batch of appeals filed by KU, upheld its single judge’s verdict as “unexceptionable”.

“Such appointees are entitled to continue till the posts against which they have been engaged are filled up through a regular selection process,” it said.

However, the bench modified the single judge bench’s order with regard to the requirement of temporary faculty in the Department of Law, ruling that it would be appropriate to leave it to the Department concerned and the regulatory authority under the Advocates Act, 1961, that is, the Bar Council of India, to take a call.

“Should the appellants need the services of ad hoc, contractual, or academic arrangement appointees to supplement their existing core faculty, they shall be free to make such arrangements,” the bench said.

However, while doing so, they shall first offer these engagements to those who have already acquired the requisite experience in teaching by rendering their services in earlier academic sessions. “That would benefit both the appellants (KU authorities) and the student community,” the Division Bench said.

The Division Bench said the varsity should refrain from replacing those who are in position or who are invited to work in such positions as contractual appointees, by making similar arrangements for meeting the same requirement by resorting to a change of nomenclature.

“The Department of Law and the Law School of the university shall, however, be permitted to avail the services of part-time and guest faculty, who shall be engaged only to teach specific subjects or deliver lectures on a particular subject or issue of law, and would not be whole-time faculty supplied in lieu of core regular faculty,” it said.

The court also directed the University of Kashmir to place its judgment before the Bar Council of India for appropriate action envisaged under the Advocates Act, 1961, and the rules framed thereunder, including the Bar Council of India Rules and the Rules of Legal Education, 2008.

“The Bar Council of India shall immediately and forthwith visit the University of Kashmir and assess the requirement of core faculty to run the three-year as well as five-year law courses, and issue requisite directions, including creation of posts, if any, required,” the court said. “The Bar Council of India would also issue necessary directions to the University of Kashmir to streamline the making of temporary arrangements to supplement the efforts of core faculty in imparting quality education to law students.”