PATNA:
After a recent judgment of the Supreme Court, candidates having got
their PhD degrees prior to 2009 have been left with little chance of
becoming a lecturer (assistant professor) in any college or university
of the country.
The apex court has upheld the UGC regulations which
provide for National Eligibility Test (NET) or State-Level Eligibility
Test (SLET) or PhD as per UGC guidelines, 2009, as the essential
qualification for lectureship.
The judgment delivered by
Justice T S Thakur and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman of the Supreme
Court (in P Suseela vs UGC case) on March 16 has come as rude shock to
thousands of scholars of Bihar who had been aspiring for lectureship
with the PhD degrees obtained before 2009. They had been seeking
exemption from NET on the basis of their doctoral degree.
The
Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) had advertised 3,364 vacancies of
assistant professors (lecturers) in September last year after a gap of
over 17 years strictly as per UGC guidelines. But, following the
intervention of Patna high court, even candidates having PhD degree sans
UGC guidelines, 2009, were allowed to submit their applications. But
now the apex court's judgment debars those who have done PhD without
fulfilling the conditions of 2009 regulations.
The UGC
regulations of 2010 related to appointment of assistant professors or
equivalent positions in universities and colleges and other measures for
the maintenance of standards in higher education has been upheld by the
apex court. As per it, NET/SLET/SET shall remain the minimum
eligibility condition for recruitment of assistant professors.
Candidates, who had been awarded a PhD degree in accordance with the UGC
regulations of 2009, shall be exempted from this minimum eligibility
condition. Furthermore, NET/SLET/SET shall not be required for such
Master's Degree programmes in disciplines for which such accredited test
is not conducted. The SC also rejected the UGC committee's formula for
granting exemptions to PhD degree holders who fulfil six out of 11
conditions (which formed the basis of Allahabad high court judgment of
April 6, 2012). In this regard, the court observed all lecturers in
universities/colleges/institutions governed by the UGC Act should have a
certain minimum standard of excellence before they are appointed as
such.
Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar
working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha said the posts advertised by
BPSC for appointment of assistant professors have now become a distant
dream for the sons of the soil. Unless NET is held on a regional basis,
it will be rather impossible to find as many NET- qualified candidates
as required to fill up the vacancies, he said.
