Shot in the arm for govt as HC rules in Priya’s favour

KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Thursday set aside a single bench order against the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s private secretary and former MP K K Ragesh, as associate professor in Malayalam department of Kannur University. Priya has the relevant experience for the post and her candidature be considered accordingly, it said.

A division bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias C P gave the ruling on Priya's appeal against the single bench order in November last year that she lacked the relevant period of actual teaching experience as stipulated under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, 2018 for the post.
The verdict came as a relief to Priya and the LDF government as the proposed appointment was termed “political” by the opposition as well as governor and university chancellor Arif Mohammed Khan who stayed it.
‘Research period also experience’
Priya reportedly had the lowest research score but was declared first in the selection process after she topped the interview.
The bench held that the time spent by her on research under the faculty development programme of the university is entitled to be reckoned towards the research experience stipulated for the post. It said that merely on account of having pursued a research degree simultaneously with her teaching assignment, the research period will not be excluded from being counted as experience.
The court said the prohibition under the UGC Regulations against inclusion of the time taken for acquiring a PhD degree in the computation of teaching/research experience only applied to those who were not working as a teacher in any institution at the time of applying for the post in question.
It also agreed with the state government's contention that a finding that the time spent in these posts would not count as teaching experience would have “disastrous consequences” for the academic community as no teacher would go on deputation to such positions for fear of losing out on career progression.
“We have to also remind ourselves, yet again, that when the University, which is an academic body, has chosen to treat the said experience of the teacher as ‘teaching experience’, then this court must defer to the wisdom of the academic body and refrain from interfering with the said decision unless it is shown to be clearly opposed to the statutory provisions in vogue,” the bench said.
It also held that the eight months and 24 days Priya spent as lecturer at the Teacher Education Centre at Kannur University on ad hoc/contract basis after attaining the NET qualification is also entitled to be reckoned towards teaching experience.