All teaching staff at Panjab University to have chance to head dept, says High Court

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, June 25

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled everyone in Panjab University has to be given a chance of headship to lead a department on a rotation basis, irrespective of their stature as junior and senior in the teaching faculty.

Justice Sanjay Vashisth of the High Court also made it clear that the interpretation was strengthened by Rule 2.3 of the Panjab University Calendar on the rotation of headship in the teaching departments. Instead of mentioning posts such as professor, reader, or lecturer, the rule started with the expression ‘a person’. Justice Vashisth said the post of chairman or head of a department in a teaching department was not a promotion to a particular position. It was merely a designation for a specific tenure of three years at a given time.

Justice Vashisth said the designation was required to run on a rotation basis. The issue was undisputed by the parties in court that it would not matter the post that the proposed candidate was manning.

Justice Vashisth said, “If the rotation of lecturers or assistant professors is continuing and another eligible lecturer with a minimum of eight years of teaching experience in the department is available, he can lead the department by being designated as chairman or head of the department, despite the availability of the professors or readers.”

He added that the intent and purpose of formulating the rotation system by the framers of the ‘rules for headship’ in the teaching departments was to create qualitative teachers who could manage the affairs of the departments in an efficient and effective manner.

Referring to Rule 2.3, Justice Vashisth said ‘a person’ once designated as chairman or head of the department would not be eligible for the same designation for the second time until all other available and eligible professors, readers, and lecturers in the department had availed themselves of the chance of being designated as chairman or head.

The ruling by Justice Vashisth came on a petition filed against Panjab University and other respondents by Dr Mohanmeet Khosla for a quashing order dated September 20, 2019, in which Assistant Professor Sumedha Singh was designated as chairman or head of the School of Communication Studies for three years.

Assistant Professor Bhavneet Bhatti was subsequently arrayed as respondent as she was designated chairperson or head for three years from October 1, 2022, following completion of three years’ fixed term by Sumedha Singh during the plea’s pendency.

Justice Vashisth said the petitioner’s plea for being designated as chairperson or head for the period during which Sumedha Singh was designated, on the ground of being available as a professor, appeared to be misconceived.

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