19 out of 20 associate prof posts vacant in govt law colleges: Madras HC told

CHENNAI: If the State is not in a position to appoint permanent teaching faculty at all government law colleges, it is better to close down those institutions, said the Madras High Court.

The court made the comment while taking a serious note of several associate and assistant professor posts remaining vacant. As per the affidavit submitted by the Director of Legal Studies, 19 out of 20 associate professor posts in the 15 government law colleges in Tamil Nadu were vacant. In the case of assistant professors, 70 of the 206 sanctioned posts were vacant, it added.

"It is very strange and unfortunate to note the particulars of vacant posts lying in the government law colleges after pursuing the affidavit filed by the Director of Legal Studies,” said Justice Battu Devanand, and directed the Secretary of Law department to appear before the court.

Without appointing qualified candidates as associate and assistant professors on a permanent basis, no one could expect proper legal education from government law colleges, the judge said.

This situation would “destroy the future generation” and “seriously spoil the careers” of students who are interested in entering the profession, he said in the order.

The matter was posted to October 15 for the State to submit its plan for the course of action to be undertaken within a certain timeframe to fill all vacancies of associate and assistant professors. Justice Devanand added that he would pass an appropriate order on this aspect at the next hearing.

The directions were issued while hearing a petition moved by Vasantha Kumar from Chennai, seeking to direct the State government to initiate the process for direct recruitment to the post of associate professor in government law colleges.