Gauhati High Court Quashes APSC Lecturer Recruitment Advertisement; Orders Fresh Steps to Fill 199 Polytechnic Lecturer Posts

Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court, while allowing the writ petition (WP(C)/2089/2020), allowed the respondents in the case to take appropriate steps to fill up the 113 posts of Lecturer (Technical) in different subjects in the Polytechnics of Assam and 86 posts of Lecturer (Non-Technical) in 5 different subjects in the Polytechnics of Assam in accordance with the existing rules and regulations.

The HC, however, set aside and quashed the APSC advertisement dated May 25, 2017 and its notification dated March 3, 2020 relating to the posts of Lecturer (Technical) in different subjects in Polytechnics of Assam and Lecturer (Non-Technical) in different subjects.

The background of the case is that the Government of Assam, in 2011, decided to establish 21 new polytechnics in 21 districts under the centrally funded scheme and one new polytechnic at Titabor, Jorhat, under the state-funded scheme. Accordingly, 11 new polytechnics were established by the year 2016 in Dhemaji, Golaghat, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Goalpara, Baska, Nalbari, Kamrup, Barpeta, Sivasagar, and Karimganj.

Thereafter, by a letter dated December 23, 2016, the posts of lecturer in the aforesaid polytechnics were created and sanctioned. Consequently, the Assam Public Service Commission (Commission, in short) issued an advertisement dated May 25, 2017 inviting applications for filling up 353 different vacant posts in the State Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics of Assam under the Higher Education (Technical) Department.

However, as the recruitment process pursuant to the advertisement was taking time to start and as the State Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics were facing shortages of lecturers, the authorities concerned decided to temporarily engage some guest faculty so that the said institutes could run properly and the academic sessions would not be affected by the shortage of regular lecturers.

Accordingly, the Director of Technical Education, Assam, published an advertisement on July 7, 2018 inviting candidates having qualifications as per AICTE/UGC norms and as adopted by the Government of Assam for the engagement of guest faculties in the new polytechnics under the Directorate of Technical Education. The petitioners with the requisite qualifications submitted their applications in terms of the advertisement and were shortlisted for selection. Pursuant to the publication of the final select list, the petitioners were issued letters of engagement in 2018 and 2019 to serve as guest faculty members. The appointments of the petitioners were for a period of six months. However, their appointments have been extended from time to time.

In the meantime, the Commission published a notification dated March 3, 2020, for holding a Multiple Choice Type Screening Test (OMR-based) as a process for recruitment to the posts of lecturers (technical and non-technical) and librarians in the Polytechnics of Assam. As the petitioners are being denied the right to participate in the recruitment process, they filed the present writ petition.

The counsel for the petitioners pointed out that they were engaged on a purely temporary basis in terms of the advertisement, dated July 7, 2018, in 2018 and 2019, to serve as guest or part-time lecturers against the sanctioned posts. The initial period of engagement was for a period of six months, but it has been extended from time to time till date. The petitioners were allowed to work as full time employees or lecturers, and they were allowed to draw regular pay scales.

This court, after hearing all sides, offered the considered opinion that if the selection process, vide the advertisement dated May 25, 2017, is allowed to proceed, it would violate the fundamental rights of all eligible candidates, including the petitioners, who had become eligible thereafter.

“There is no doubt that the petitioners were not eligible in terms of the criteria laid down in the advertisement, dated May 25, 2017. However, in the meantime, they have become eligible. If the Commission had proceeded with the recruitment process in due time, this Court may not have entertained the prayer of the petitioner in the present writ petition. However, considering the fact that the recruitment process has yet to take off and, till date, the advertisement, dated May 25, 2017, is interfered with,” the court observed.

Accordingly, the advertisement dated May 25, 2017, and the notification dated March 3, 2020, were set aside and quashed.

“The respondents are, however, given the liberty to take appropriate steps to fill up the 113 posts of Lecturer (Technical) in different subjects in the Polytechnics of Assam and the 86 posts of Lecturer (Non-Technical) in 5 different subjects in the Polytechnics of Assam in accordance with the existing Rules and Regulations,” the court ruled, allowing the writ petition.

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