The Kerala High Court has set aside the appointment of 10 assistant professors in the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University.
Justice Shaji P. Chaly issued the order on petitions filed by P. Satheesh of Kasaragod and others seeking to quash the appointments. The appointments were made in 2016 when K. Jayakumar was the Vice Chancellor of the university.
The court found that the appointments were totally illegal, arbitrary and unsustainable under law. Therefore, it quashed the selection of Jainy Varghese, V. Sreeja, Manjusha Varma, K.S. Hakeem, R. Danya, Sreeraj, N.G. Sreeja, S.S. Swapna Rani, R. Vidhya and Sudheer Salam as assistant professors in different faculties under the university.
The court observed that the entire selection process for the post of Assistant Professors conducted by the university was totally in violation of the Minimum Qualification Regulations, 2010, and the University Act, 2013.
The court, however, observed that even though the entire selection based on the notification was sought to be quashed, the court was reluctant to do so. This was because all the affected persons were not made parties in the writ petitions.
The court made it clear that the university could make any contract appointments subject to the Regulations, Ordinances and First Statute to further conduct the classes.
The court observed that it was clear that the constitution of the interview board was totally in violation of the Minimum Qualification Regulations, 2010 and the University Act.
