The Delhi High Court has ordered the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) not to make any appointments on two posts — professor and associate professor — which has been challenged by two candidates.
A Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh passed the direction on a petition filed by two assistant professors who are laying their claim to the two posts. The two assistant professors in their petition has sought stay on the advertisement issued by JNU in August last year for the two posts contending that the categories for the two posts have been altered.
Reserved posts
Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing on behalf of petitioners, stated that although in the earlier advertisement issued by the JNU in 2017, certain posts were reserved. Mr. Sibal said the two posts are now shown in the altered categories namely Scheduled Tribes (ST) and unreserved categories in the August 2019 advertisement.
One of the posts, earlier reserved for SC candidate, has now been converted into an ST post. And the other post, which was reserved for the ST candidate, has now been dereserved and converted to an unreserved post.
According to the petitioners, they are eligible for consideration against these reserved posts, respectively, according to the roster points and this action of the varsity in altering the category “has adversely affected their consideration”.
Advocate Monica Arora, appearing for JNU, submitted that as far as the two posts are concerned, no appointments are being made in the next Executive Council meeting.
The Bench also advanced the date of hearing before another Bench of the High Court which is already seized of the main matter. It also directed JNU to submit its response to the plea before that date of the hearing.
