HC quashes appointment of 254 asst profs of Pachaiyappa's Trust

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court quashed the appointment of 254 assistant professors of the Pachayappa's Educational Trust Board’s institutions on the grounds that the above recruitments were made without following proper rules and regulations.

Justice SM Subramanian passed the direction after the director of the Directorate of Collegiate Education (DCE) submitted a report stating that there are several irregularities in awarding additional marks for the recruitment of assistant professors.

The director of DCE verified the educational qualification and certificates of the 254 assistant professors as ordered by the Madras High Court and filed a report revealing the veracity of the appointments.

The judge passed the direction on disposing of a batch of petitions. The petitioners alleged that former justice Shanmugam, the then administrator of the Pachaiyappa's Educational Trust Board found that 152 out of 254 assistant professors recruited in the years 2013, 2014, and 2015 are not possessing the requisite qualification as per the recruitment notification.

Therefore, petitioners sought a direction to scrutinize the appointments made to the post of assistant professors in the Pachaiyappa's Educational Trust Board institutions.

Recording the submissions of the DCE director, the judge held that the recruitment for 254 assistant professors’ positions was conducted without following the proper selection process contemplated under Sections 15 and 16 of the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976.

He further pointed out that the applications for the assistant professors’ posts were not received at the All India level.

With the above observations, the court quashed the recruitment of 254 assistant professors.