Promotion as Professor under UGC, CAS to be given effect from date of eligibility and not date of interview: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that the date of promotion as Professors under Career Advancement Scheme of University Grants Commission (UGC) would be from the date one satisfies the minimum period of eligibility, and not the date of interview (Dr Kiran Gupta vs University of Delhi & ors). .The judgement was passed by a single-judge Bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao while deciding three petitions concerning the issue of date of promotion of three Delhi University Associate Professors (petitioners). .In substance, the prayer of the petitioners was that they should be promoted to the post of Professor from the post of Associate Professor with effect from their date of eligibility and not from the date of interview i.e. June 25, 2019..The petitioner argued that in 2014, the UGC had issued a notification stating that promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) stipulated promotions from date of eligibility, not from the date of interview..It was thus asserted that the Selection Committee, for no reason, promoted the petitioners prospectively from the date of the interview and not from date they became eligible. .The Court was also informed that persons who were junior to them were given promotion from the date of eligibility and thus the petitioners should given the same treatment. .Reliance was also placed on UGC (Minimum Qualifications for appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in University and Colleges and measurers for the maintenance of standard in Higher Education), Regulations 2010 to state that if a candidate applied for promotion on completion of the minimum eligibility period and is successful, the date of promotion would be from the date of minimum eligibility. .Delhi University argued that there was no illegality in the prospective promotion of the petitioners and that there was no obligation on the part of the Selection Committee to give reasons for giving/denying promotion..It was submitted that promotions under CAS were personal to the teacher concerned and the same had been done in the present case as per the assessment of the Selection Committee after due deliberations and due process concerning the screening and evaluation..DU inter alia added that no comparison could be drawn with other teachers whose promotion under CAS have been treated retrospectively..UGC stated that the date of promotion must relate back to the date of eligibility..The Court noted that it was undisputed that the petitioners had to be considered under CAS which in its clause 6.3.12 sub clause (a) stipulated that if a candidate applied for promotion on completion of the minimum eligibility period and was successful, the date of promotion would be from the date of minimum period of eligibility. ."There is no dispute that the petitioners have been assessed fit for promotion. If that be so, then the promotion must relate back to the date of minimum period of eligibility," the Court said. .The Court observed that sub-clause (c) contemplated that if a candidate did not succeed in the first assessment, but succeeded in the later assessment, his/ her promotion would be deemed to be from the later date of successful assessment..Noticing that this was not case in the present instances, the Court added,."..the petitioners have been found fit on their first assessment itself for promotion to the post of Professor. If that be so, the petitioners could not have been denied the promotion from the date of eligibility when the promotion with prospective effect is based on the same material. In fact, I find that by giving the recommendations prospectively, the Selection Committee has deferred the promotion of the petitioners..The same clearly demonstrates the prejudice that has been caused to the petitioners due to the recommendation of the Selection Committee, promoting the petitioners prospectively from the date of interview.".With respect to DU's stand that the Selection Committee was not bound to give reasons for its conclusion, the Court added that in view of the regulations in question, some reason must be given in case a teacher was not found fit in a particular year but found fit in a later year. .In the absence of such conclusion, it must be said that the teacher is found fit from the date of eligibility, the Court further said. .The petitions were accordingly allowed with the direction that the promotion of the petitioners shall relate back to their date of eligibility..Various petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate V Shekhar and advocates PB Suresh, Vipin Nair, Shashank Shekhar, Sheetal Rajput, Karthik Jayashankar, Prasanna S, Aakarsh Kamra and Sanjay Relan..Advocate Mohinder JS Rupal appeared for DU. Advocate Apoorv Kurup appeared for UGC..[Read Order]