After University Failed To Reconstitute Selection Panel, Madras HC Promotes Associate Professor To Professor From Judgment Date, Without Back Pay

Dr. T. Sumathi, an Associate Professor in the University of Madras’s Department of Medical Biochemistry, applied under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for promotion to Professor. Although her application received satisfactory evaluation reports, the Selection Committee did not recommend her after the interview, and the Syndicate approved that decision.

She challenged the non-selection before the High Court. The Single Judge quashed the relevant Syndicate action and Selection Committee minutes and directed the University to constitute a new committee with different experts to assess her candidature.

Both the University and Dr. Sumathi appealed, challenging the parts of the Single Judge’s order adverse to them.

The Court referred to the UGC Regulations governing promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme, including the requirement that a candidate’s suitability for promotion be assessed through the prescribed selection process; the judgment did not identify a specific regulation or statutory provision.

The Court also applied the principle that a University must diligently comply with a judicial direction requiring reconsideration by a properly constituted committee, while taking account of the candidate’s lack of recommendation by the earlier Selection Committee.

No precedent was cited.

The Court found that the University had not diligently implemented the Single Judge’s direction to constitute a fresh committee with new expert members, and had instead pursued an appeal, resulting in further delay.

However, Dr. Sumathi had not secured a recommendation from the original Selection Committee, so the Court did not grant her retrospective promotion or the monetary benefits sought. To avoid prolonging the matter through another selection process, it directed that she be conferred Professorship from the date of the appellate order, without monetary benefits.

The connected miscellaneous petitions were closed, with no order as to costs.