The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered an interim stay on the regularisation of guest faculty in government arts and science colleges. The court passed the order in a writ petition filed by an aspirant to the post of assistant professor.
The apprehension of the petitioner, S. Pandiammal, was that the State had been attempting to regularise the services of guest lecturers, who had put in more than five years of services in various arts and science colleges.
Therefore, the number of vacancies called for to the post of assistant professor in the Tamil Nadu Collegiate Department Services would be considerably reduced and the possibility of the petitioner being selected too would come down.
The State submitted that there were more than 1,600 guest faculties, who had been persistently making requests for regularisation of their services. Therefore, particulars of guest faculties had been sought for the purpose of certificate verification.
Justice M.S. Ramesh observed that on a comparison of the vast number of guest faculties with the vacancies of 2,331, the apprehension of the petitioner seems plausible. “I am of the prima facie view that such an exercise to regularise guest faculties could be done after completion of the selection process,” the judge said.
Since the apprehension of the petitioner is that regularisation of guest faculties may happen soon, it would be appropriate to put on hold the order calling for details of guest faculties for the time being, the judge said. The case was adjourned till March 1.
