80 assistant professors in quandary

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 28

The future of 80 assistant professors working in various government colleges of the state is uncertain.

Their services were regularised in July 2014 and now the government has initiated a move to keep them on an ad hoc basis.

The state government has issued a show-cause notice to the assistant professors asking them to explain as to why the notification issued in July 2014 to regularise their services should not be withdrawn.

The assistant professors were posted in various colleges on an ad hoc basis about eight to nine years ago. Most of them did not have the basic educational qualification of UGC NET or MPhil/PhD degrees, the basic conditions for the appointment of assistant professors in any government college. However, they continued to serve in government colleges on meagre salaries until the government regularised their services in July 2014.

The move of the government to regularise them was opposed by the teachers union’ of state government colleges, terming it a back-door entry into government services.

The union had said the assistant professors posted in the government colleges should come through the State Public Service Commission.

In the show-cause notice, a copy of which is with The Tribune, Addition Chief Secretary PC Dhiman stated that the High Court had held that any regularisation policy of the state government could not be treated as substitute for the rules for regularisation.

The state is expected to make appointments and regularise the services of private respondents in consonance to the recruitment and promotion rules framed under article 309 of the Constitution.

The Additional Chief Secretary stated that the court had dismissed the civil writ petition (CWP) which prayed for regularisation of the services of petitioners.

He said the matter had been examined in detail and it had been opined that in view of the judgement of the High Court the services of the assistant professors could not have been regularised. He added that the competent authority had come to the conclusion that the order of regularisation was to be withdrawn.

The assistant professor, whose services were regularised through a notification issued on July 14, 2014, or July 28, 2014, may reply to the notice by May 9, 2016. If no reply is received, it will be presumed that they have nothing to say against the proposal to withdraw their regularisation.

Though the state government is being forced to withdraw its two-year-old notification for regularisation of ad hoc assistant professors in the government colleges, it is still announcing that it will regularise the ad hoc teachers in the government schools, which is unfair as no proper procedure is followed in appointments.