Minimum qualification for guest lecturers a must: HC

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The High Court of Karnataka has held that minimum qualification as prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for guest lecturers should be followed while appointing guest lecturers.

The court has also held that the method of granting weightage to guest lecturers for every academic year of service is also reasonable and refused to interfere with it.

Justice BM Shyam Prasad disposed of a batch of petitions by hundreds of petitioners who are working as guest lecturers in various government colleges who had challenged a Government Order dated January 14, 2022.

The Government Order’s Clause 6 stipulated that even a candidate who did not possess minimum educational qualification as prescribed by the UGC could be appointed provided such qualification is acquired within three years.

If the minimum qualification is not acquired within those three years, the appointment of such applicants would be completely restricted. By a circular dated January 17, the Government allowed weightage of 3 marks per academic year for a maximum of 16 years.

Both these were challenged before the HC. The single-judge bench by its order dated January 11 noted that the UGC Regulation which prescribes minimum educational qualification even for appointment of guest lecturers would prevail.

But the State Government also informed that Clause 6 was not mentioned in the subsequent Circular issued by it. (WP 3079/2022)