Punjab: HC relief to assistant profs & librarians awaiting recruitment since 2021

Chandigarh : In a major relief, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday allowed the recruitment of 1,158 assistant professors and librarians in Punjab while overturning a single bench ruling which had earlier rejected this recruitment in 2022.

The Punjab government had challenged this decision in a double bench.

During the hearing, the counsel appearing on behalf of the Punjab government had demanded allotment of stations to professors selected during the recruitment of 1,158 assistant professors/librarians. The government’s counsel had apprised the court that the recruitment was done for the government colleges after a long time and a selection list of 607 candidates was also released after the exam, 135 candidates had joined their respective stations, while the process of station allotment for 472 assistant professors was pending.

The matter was pending since 2021 and had also led to protests by selected professors/librarians in the state whose appointments were stuck.

Following the HC orders on Monday, the leaders of 1,158 assistant professors and librarians’ union met state education minister Harjot Singh Bains and expressed their gratitude for his support through the legal proceedings concerning the recruitment process.

What was the matter

The Punjab professors and librarian recruitment process began in October 2021 just ahead of the Punjab assembly elections.

The director of higher education, Punjab, issued a public notice on October 19, 2021, inviting online application forms from eligible candidates for the posts of assistant professor in various subjects and librarians. The total number of posts available during the recruitment process were 1,158.

Following this, there was one more notice on the same date mentioning the eligibility, selection process, pay scale and other instructions. Acknowledging both, the interested candidates appeared for the written test of Punjab assistant professor exam, conducted on November 20 and 21, 2021. The results were released on November 26, 2021.

Out of 1,158 who cleared the exam, 607 joined the head office at Mohali on December 2 and 3, the same year. Among the 607, 135 were given posting orders to various colleges on December 22 and 23, 2021.

Recruitment was quashed in August 2022

The Punjab and Haryana high court had restrained the state government from going ahead with the recruitment process due to allegations that criterion was “wholly arbitrary and discriminatory” and granted weightage in lieu of work experience only to the guest faculty, part-time workers and contract teachers working in colleges. Another main concern was that the process of hiring assistant professors was approved by then chief minister Charanjeet Channi but the ex-post-facto cabinet approval was pending. Conduct of only written tests and no interviews was another concern raised by several ad-hoc teachers and guest lecturers who filed a writ petition in the HC.

Considering this, the HC stayed the process on December 3, 2021. But the 607 candidates who received the appointment orders already submitted their joining orders at the department’s headquarters on December 2 and 3. So the candidates claim that the court, while passing an interim order in this issue, instructed the department to stop this recruiting process for the others who haven’t received their joining orders.

The quashing orders for this recruitment was passed in August 2022 leading to protests in the state.