Guest faculty heave sigh of relief as SC voids 1,158 assistant prof appointments

As many as 763 guest faculty assistant professors, working in the government colleges of Punjab, heaved a sigh of relief after the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of 1,158 assistant professors yesterday.

Ravi Inder Singh Mansa, a guest faculty assistant professor, who is the state president of the guest faculty assistant professors’ union, said it was a much awaited judgement as the appointments were not made as per the UGC’s guidelines by the then Congress government. “We hail the decision and are relieved because about 100 guest faculty assistant professors’ fate was hanging in the balance and they were also not paid their salaries for the past six months due to the dispute,” said Mansa.

There are 51 guest faculty assistant professors working in SCD Government College here, while the number of guest faculty in GCG is 40. Many assistant professors have been working in government colleges for over 20 years and they are on fixed salaries as per their job experiences (years).

One of the assistant professors, Dr Falvinder Verma, said, “It is completely wrong that we are being made to do the same work as a regular professor but all for a meager salary and being called guest faculty. We request the AAP government to release the salaries of the guest faculty assistant professors which have been pending for the last seven-eight months. A policy should be made to regularise the services of the guest faculty assistant.”