A recent Kerala High Court order cancelling a 2017 notification of the University of Kerala for the appointment of teaching faculty there is expected to have an impact on the recruitment in other universities in the State as well. Appointment process is right now on in Calicut University, Kannur University and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sankrit and petitions challenging it are already before the court.
The High Court on March 31 had quashed the notification which followed an amendment to the Kerala University Act in 2014, and another notification treating all the departments as one unit for staff recruitment. As many as 58 teachers appointed to the university lost their jobs. The amendment was originally aimed at combining the recruitment for the post of Professor in various departments for implementing reservation.
Those who petitioned the court against the notifications pointed out that category-wise community rotation had been allowed, pooling posts in all the departments as one unit as per provisions of the Kerala State and Subordinate Service Rules, 1958. They said that considering categories such as Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor in different departments as one unit would amount to “100% reservation, which is against the mandate of various judgments of the Supreme Court.” This had led to some departments having only those eligible for reservation as staff and some others having people from non-reservation categories alone.
The court allowed these contentions of the petitioners while quashing the notifications and the amendment.
Since the amendment to the Kerala University Act was part of the University Laws (Third Amendment) Act, which also amended the Calicut University Act, 1975, the Mahatma Gandhi University Act, 1985, and the Kannur University Act, 1996, the court order could be applicable to the appointments there as well. Calicut University has already appointed 47 assistant professors and the recruitment process is going on in other universities also. It is learnt that those who lost the jobs in Kerala University are moving the court and some others who were not chosen in other universities too are planning to file petitions.
