The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Karnataka Department of Collegiate Education to ensure complete compliance of the minimum qualification as prescribed under the University Grants Commission’s Regulations-2018 before selecting any candidates as guest lecturers.
Also, the court directed authorities not to select any candidate with only a postgraduate degree, unless such candidates obtain requisite the qualification namely NET/SLET/SET before January 2025.
Qualification through NET/SLET/SET is mandatory in the absence of a doctorate degree or if the candidate has not registered for a doctorate prior to July 2009 for appointment as guest lecturers, the court said, while referring to the UGC’s Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education, 2018.
Justice R. Nataraj passed the order while partly allowing a petition filed by Sanjeevaiah H. and four other aspirants to the posts of guest lecturers to be appointed by the department.
Weightage protected
However, the court permitted the continuation of application of weightage of the marks prescribed for past service for a maximum period of 16 years at the rate of three marks for every academic year for those candidates who had earlier worked as guest lecturers.
The petitioners had complained that the department in 2023 invited applications to fill up the posts of guest faculty for the academic year in government colleges throughout the State, by prescribing only PG degree in violation of the UGC’s regulations without insisting a pass in NET/SLET/PhD but granted three years time to such candidates to clear the UGC mandated tests.
This action deprived petitioners from being selected owing to weightage given to the candidates who had worked as guest lecturers earlier even though they had not cleared NET/SLET/SET, it was claimed in the petition.
“There is no escape from the fact that the regulation also prescribes that in respect of contractual lecturers also minimum qualification as prescribed the UGC’s regulations should be fulfilled,” the court clarified.
Noticing that the period of guest lecturer for the previous academic year is already over, the Court directed the Government to strictly ensure compliance of minimum qualification prescribed in the UGC’s regulation while appointing guest lecturers for the academic year 2024-25 for which the notification was issued on August 30. The Court also pointed out that the educational qualification prescribed in the present notification falls foul of the UGC’s Regulations while directing strict compliance to the minimum qualification.
Published - September 24, 2024 07:00 am IST
