3 days ago
HC imposes cost of Rs 5L on HS Gour varsity, asks for fresh appointments
Bhopal/Jabalpur: The MP high court imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on Harisingh Gour Central University, Sagar, for "utterly illegal and arbitrary" appointment of assistant professors in the university and said the university will deposit the "exemplary cost" within 45 days.
The HC stated that the university will be at liberty to recover the amount from members of the executive council who participated in its meeting on Nov 14, 2022.
The court also set aside the decision taken in the 2022 meeting and restored an earlier decision of the executive council taken in Feb 2020 and said a fresh list for appointment of assistant professors be made according to this decision. The amount of cost received from the university will be divided among MP Police Welfare Fund (Rs 2,00,000.00), National Defence Fund (Rs 1,00,000.00), Armed Forces Flag Day Fund (Rs 1,00,000.00) MP State Legal Services Authority (Rs 50,000.00) and High Court Bar Association, Jabalpur (Rs 50,000.00).
Allowing a petition filed by Dr Deepak Gupta from Sagar, the bench of Justice Vivek Jain said appropriate cost needs to be imposed upon the university in defeating the rights of the left-out candidates and trying to protect and save illegally selected candidates. Therefore, an exemplary cost of Rs 5.00 lakh is imposed jointly on respondents the VC and secretary.
Dr Gupta in his petition said that in 2010, vacancies were advertised for appointment of assistant professors without mention of vacancies.
Later, a modified advertisement was issued in which 76 vacancies were advertised. However, the appointment of 156 candidates was made. A petition challenging the selection process filed in the MP high court. In the year 2017, the high court quashed the appointments and ordered fresh appointments in a transparent manner.
The executive council of the university decided in Feb 2020 to prepare a fresh list of appointees but in 2022, the executive council changed the decision.
The court held that the decision taken in the 2022 meeting of the executive council was illegal and arbitrary and asked the university administration to complete the process of fresh appointments within 3 else the assistant profs concerned would cease to be in the job from Nov 15, 2025.
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