Ad hoc appointments at DU: Delhi High Court verdict in favour of 2 teachers a shot in arm for several others
While criticising DU for 'consciously using ad hoc appointments as a substitute for regular employment', the Delhi High Court ordered the regularisation of Namita Khare and Mehak Talwar, (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/mischief-supreme-court-censured-delhi-high-court-delhi-university-regularising-ad-hoc-professors-10125861/) who have been working as ad hoc assistant professors in the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies at DU since 2017.
Their case, built on the fact of uninterrupted service over several years, signalled that the judiciary was willing to question the university's long reliance on ad hoc faculty, even as thousands of such appointments have come and gone with little scrutiny.
An ad hoc teacher, in the DU system, exists on a four-month cycle. Contracts are renewed multiple times a year, sometimes for over a decade. These teachers attend faculty meetings, evaluate students, teach full course loads—and yet are never granted the security or status of permanent employment.
In October 2023, the university put out a notification stating that ad hoc appointments would be discontinued, and that only permanent faculty would be hired going forward. The policy shift came after years of discontent, legal challenges, and multiple controversies around how the university recruited and replaced teachers.
Last year, several teachers at Satyawati and Indraprastha colleges lost their positions during the permanent hiring round. Some alleged that candidates with lower Academic Performance Indicator (API) scores and questionable academic records were selected instead. Others pointed to the brevity of their interviews and the lack of transparency in the process.
At Hindu College, the removal of a philosophy teacher who had taught on an ad hoc basis for seven years and his subsequent death by suicide sparked a broader reckoning. Faculty members and student groups accused the system of treating teachers as disposable, regardless of their contributions.
Over the past two years, according to official data shared earlier, Delhi University filled around 3,500 permanent teaching positions, out of which approximately 3,000 were from the ad hoc pool. University officials have maintained that all appointments were made strictly in line with University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. However, with over 4,200 ad hoc teachers in service at one point, the conversion rate has left hundreds out of the system.
The rise in ad hoc appointments over the past decade can be traced to two key developments. Between 2008 and 2013, an estimated 1,500 teachers retired from DU, opening up a wave of vacancies. Around the same time, following the implementation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations, the Central government had sanctioned additional teaching posts for universities. DU was allocated over 2,600 such posts. While about 1,300 were released in 2007, the recruitment process stagnated in the years that followed.
Changing recruitment norms further slowed down the process. Protests in 2010 targeted the introduction of the API system. In 2013, the roll-out of the 200-point roster led to more opposition. Recruitment was paused, then restarted, then paused again. Litigation followed. In the absence of a stable hiring mechanism, colleges and departments continued to rely on ad hoc appointments to keep classrooms running.
In April 2023, the DU registrar stated that around 2,000 permanent appointments had been made in colleges since February 2022, when the selection process was initiated. But with 4,500 to 5,000 sanctioned posts in colleges overall, the number of vacancies remains significant.
The recent high court decision in favour of Khare and Talwar has raised questions about how many other long-serving ad hoc teachers might seek similar relief. The court took note of their uninterrupted service since 2017 and the lack of regular recruitment during that period.
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