Jahanvi Agarwal
On Monday, i.e., August 1, 2023, the Kerala High Court’s order to appoint Priya Varghese as an associate professor at Kannur University was challenged by the University Grants Commission (UGC), and the Supreme Court gave notice to hear the appeal.
Her appointment had been approved by the High Court, considering the time she spent earning her Ph.D. was recognized as teaching experience. UGC claimed that the High Court made an error by including the time she spent earning her Ph.D. as teaching experience in its appeal before the Supreme Court.
Varghese did not fulfill the minimum of 8 years of teaching experience required for the job since, in the UGC’s opinion, the time she spent earning her Ph.D. cannot be regarded as teaching or research experience. According to the UGC, Varghese was a full-time Research Scholar and did not have any teaching responsibilities while pursuing her Ph.D.
The center of the dispute is how Regulation 3.11 of the UGC Regulations, 2018 should be interpreted. The High Court ruled that candidates who are not faculty members would not be considered for teaching experience, but that time spent pursuing a research degree concurrently with a teaching assignment would be taken into account.
This approach, according to the UGC, is flawed since teaching experience must be taken in its “actual sense” as opposed to what might be “construed or inferred.” According to the UGC, Regulation 3.11 makes it clear that time spent pursuing a Ph.D. will not be considered teaching or research experience unless it is done concurrently with a teaching assignment without taking a leave of absence.
Priya Varghese did not have the necessary teaching experience to be appointed as an associate professor at Kannur University, according to a November 2022 decision by a single bench of the Kerala High Court.
The court ordered the University’s competent authority to review Varghese’s qualifications and determine whether or not she should remain on the Rank List. After Varghese was on the Rank List, Dr. Joseph Skariah filed a writ petition to challenge her inclusion, claiming that she lacked the required 8 years of teaching experience.
Case Name: University Grants Commission v. Priya Varghese
Diary Number: 15816/2023
Bench: Justice Devan Ramachandran