Delhi HC restrains JNU from initiating recruitment process for vacancies

The Delhi High Court has restrained the Jawaharlal Nehru University from initiating any fresh recruitment process for the post of over 200 professors and associate professors until it publishes a newly prepared roster points for the vacancies.

A Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endaw and Justice Sanjeev Narula also ordered JNU to “revisit and reexamine and recast the point-based roster for all posts and in the light of the judgment of the Single Judge [Bench of the High Court] and in accordance with the post-based reservation system”.

The court also clarified that the appointments already made will not be adversely affected.

Advertisements quashed

The Single Judge Bench had on November 17 last year quashed JNU’s August 2019 advertisements with respect to two posts — associate professor and a professor in the School of Social Sciences and the School of International Studies.

The court had remarked: “The reservation rosters have to be post-based and there cannot be exchange of reservation points or de-reservation. The latter is permissible only in very exceptional cases and that too by following a very rigorous process.”

Advocate Maanav Kumar, who represented the petitioners, said though the Single Judge Bench found “illegalities/errors” in the post-based roster followed by JNU in issuing the 2019 recruitment advertisements, the order was restricted with regard to only two posts and not all the 267 posts that were advertised.