High Court quashes appointment made by Mangalore University
Mangaluru ,DEC 10, 2014, DHNS:
With the Karnataka High Court terming the appointment of an assistant professor by the Mangalore University as “illegal,” there is a ray of hope for more than half a dozen candidates, who have filed cases against the Mangalore university seeking justice in the recruitments done by the former Vice Chancellor Prof T C Shivashankar Murthy for various posts of professors, associate professors and assistant professors.
In a major set back to the Mangalore university, the High Court (Writ Petition 17475/2014) ruled that one of the applicants Srinath B S, who had applied for the post of assistant professor at the University’s Micro Biology department at the Post Graduate Centre at Chikka Aluvara in Kodagu district, should be appointed instead of Dr Gautham S A, who has been selected by the university.
The said post was reserved for rural category in the general merit category and Srinath was the only candidate under rural category who had applied for the post.
According to the notification, the post was reserved for rural category in general merit and the candidate should have secured 55 per cent marks in MSc in Micro Biology. In addition, the candidate should have passed either the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET).
Though Srinath was the only eligible candidate as per the notification (he had obtained 65.05 per cent marks and had passed SLET), the university had selected Goutham, who did not fulfil all the conditions laid down by the university notification for the said post.
Though the respondents in the said case (Mangalore university, Goutham and the Higher Education department) argued that Goutham was selected as he had a PhD and he secured more points than Srinath, the High Court ruled that Srinath was not only entitled, but deserved to be appointed to the post, as he had fulfilled all the conditions of the notification whereas Goutham did not apply under rural category (as per the reservation in the notification).
The High Court also noted that the notification by the university did not contain a condition of cut off marks for suitability of the candidate and such a condition can not be imposed in the midst of the selection process.
Appointment arbitrary
Meanwhile, a senior professor, who did not wish to be quoted, said that the judgement of the High Court on the WP17475 clearly vindicated that most of the appointments made by former vice chancellor Prof T C Shivashankara Murthy, just on the verge of his relinquishing the office, were totally arbitrary, against the statutes, in violation of the UGC guidelines prescribed for filling the posts of the teaching faculty.
“The text of the judgement in unambiguous terms shows the wilful and deliberate manipulation made by the former vice chancellor to appoint his own chosen men,” he said and added that this clearly proves that the vice chancellor had made a mockery of the rules made by the UGC to prevent the elements of unfair, corrupt or nepotic consideration creeping into the selection process.”
Many more cases
It may be noted that many more such writ petitions are waiting on the doors of the Karnataka High Court, and the victims are eagerly waing for justice. Though the victims had approached the then Chancellor H R Bharadwaj, it did not yield any results.
However, with the present Chancellor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala ordering probe into the irregularities in Karnataka University, the eligible candidates who reportedly failed to make it in the selection process due to alleged irregularities in the selection process of Mangalore University are waiting with a hope.
In a major set back to the Mangalore university, the High Court (Writ Petition 17475/2014) ruled that one of the applicants Srinath B S, who had applied for the post of assistant professor at the University’s Micro Biology department at the Post Graduate Centre at Chikka Aluvara in Kodagu district, should be appointed instead of Dr Gautham S A, who has been selected by the university.
The said post was reserved for rural category in the general merit category and Srinath was the only candidate under rural category who had applied for the post.
According to the notification, the post was reserved for rural category in general merit and the candidate should have secured 55 per cent marks in MSc in Micro Biology. In addition, the candidate should have passed either the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET).
Though Srinath was the only eligible candidate as per the notification (he had obtained 65.05 per cent marks and had passed SLET), the university had selected Goutham, who did not fulfil all the conditions laid down by the university notification for the said post.
Though the respondents in the said case (Mangalore university, Goutham and the Higher Education department) argued that Goutham was selected as he had a PhD and he secured more points than Srinath, the High Court ruled that Srinath was not only entitled, but deserved to be appointed to the post, as he had fulfilled all the conditions of the notification whereas Goutham did not apply under rural category (as per the reservation in the notification).
The High Court also noted that the notification by the university did not contain a condition of cut off marks for suitability of the candidate and such a condition can not be imposed in the midst of the selection process.
Appointment arbitrary
Meanwhile, a senior professor, who did not wish to be quoted, said that the judgement of the High Court on the WP17475 clearly vindicated that most of the appointments made by former vice chancellor Prof T C Shivashankara Murthy, just on the verge of his relinquishing the office, were totally arbitrary, against the statutes, in violation of the UGC guidelines prescribed for filling the posts of the teaching faculty.
“The text of the judgement in unambiguous terms shows the wilful and deliberate manipulation made by the former vice chancellor to appoint his own chosen men,” he said and added that this clearly proves that the vice chancellor had made a mockery of the rules made by the UGC to prevent the elements of unfair, corrupt or nepotic consideration creeping into the selection process.”
Many more cases
It may be noted that many more such writ petitions are waiting on the doors of the Karnataka High Court, and the victims are eagerly waing for justice. Though the victims had approached the then Chancellor H R Bharadwaj, it did not yield any results.
However, with the present Chancellor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala ordering probe into the irregularities in Karnataka University, the eligible candidates who reportedly failed to make it in the selection process due to alleged irregularities in the selection process of Mangalore University are waiting with a hope.
| Karnataka: Deep rot | ||||
| Higher education in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 59 million) is in deep crisis. Over the past few months the state’s 18 government-controlled universities have been hit by a series of scandals — massive fiddling with written exam papers at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences; corruption in recruiting non-teaching staff at the Hassan and Mysore medical colleges; and manipulation of exam answer sheets of over 800 engineering students of Visvesvaraya Technological University, among others. Now to this list of scandals add routine sexual harassment of students by faculty in Mysore University (MU, estb.1916). On March 5, the peace of the 739-acre main campus of MU was shattered following a suicide attempt by M. Saritha, a zoology Ph D student, because of allegedly constant sexual harassment by her research guide Prof. Shivabasavaiah. In a statement to the Mysore police, Saritha alleged that Prof. Shivabasavaiah had been harassing her for sexual favours for several months. She also alleged that when she comp-lained to vice chancellor Dr. V.G. Talwar, he advised her to “change her guide and continue with her research”. Subsequent to her FIR, Shivabasavaiah and Talwar were booked on sexual harassment and abetment charges with the state government also ordering an enquiry by chief secretary S.V. Ranganath. Unfortunately this is not a one-off incident. According to university authorities, 26 complaints of sexual impropriety against faculty have been registered in the past six years in this once prestigious university whose alumni include Dr. Sarvepalli Radha-krishnan, former president of India; N.R. Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd; and celebrated cartoonist R.K. Laxman. The rot in Mysore University is only one symptom of a deep malaise afflicting Karnataka’s 1,500 colleges and 18 universities. Over the past three decades caste-based faculty appointments, admission and exam-related scandals, nepotism and routine interference from the state’s rustic politicians have played havoc and severely damaged the reputations of government-controlled universities. In particular, persistent political interference with faculty appointments has resulted in the steady decline of teaching-learning standards and reduced state government funded universities including Bangalore, Mysore and Karnatak University at Dharwad into degree dispensing shops producing ill-prepared, low-calibre graduates and postgrads rubbished by India Inc. With rustic neo-literate politicians scrambling to pack state government funded colleges and universities with kith and kin equipped with dubious degrees including Ph Ds awarded by obscure universities deep in the state’s hinterland, it’s hardly surprising that academic excellence is history in most government institutions of higher learning with rock-bottom standards and fees, caste-consciousness, marks-tampering scandals and sexual harassment of women students.  Unsurprisingly in the period 1998-2007, the state’s 18 universities enroled a mere 2,789 students in doctorate programmes with less than half of them being awarded Ph Ds of suspect quality. “There’s no doubt that there’s wide scale corruption, nepotism and sexism in Karnataka’s government colleges and universities. Over 50 percent of students who enrol in Ph D programmes drop out, unable to deal with these evils,” says Dr. B.K. Anitha, associate professor, School of Social Sciences at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.Prof. M.S. Thimmappa, former vice chancellor of Bangalore University, agrees that the main cause of the deep malaise afflicting higher education in the state is nepotism and rampant political interference with faculty appointments. “Political interference and nepotism have destroyed academic autonomy in higher education institutions in Karnataka. Merit has taken a back seat and the 22 percent reservation in faculty for SCs and STs is being misused to appoint under-qualified faculty. The government must immediately restore academic and administrative autonomy of universities and faculty appointments must be made transparent, merit-based and performance-linked,” says Thimmappa. Yet given that successive governments elected on the basis of complicated caste calculations and alliances have subsumed and suborned Karnataka’s once-reputed public institutions of higher learning, expecting government — especially the incumbent scandal-per-day BJP government — to stem the rot is asking for the moon. Swati Roy (Bangalore)  |
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