Over 1000 professors in Punjab lose jobs after long battle, SC criticises ‘political urgency’ behind hiring

The Supreme Court of India has scrapped the appointments of 1,158 assistant professors and librarians in Punjab state, citing serious irregularities in the recruitment process. In its verdict, the apex court set aside a September 2024 ruling by a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upholding the appointments. The top court observed that the selection process was arbitrary and did not comply with the established rules and regulations. The SC also noted that the Punjab government failed to provide any valid justification for the appointments.
The recruitment process began in October 2021, when the Punjab Director of Higher Education issued a public notice inviting online applications for assistant professor posts in various subjects and for librarians—just ahead of the state assembly elections.

The selected 1091 teachers and 67 librarians had joined recently after being recruited under the 2021 process. The recruitment came under legal scrutiny after guest lecturers filed petitions alleging irregularities in the merit-based selection process and challenging the appointments.

What was wrong with the recruitment process?

The Supreme Court pointed out that the Punjab government replaced the University Grants Commission (UGC) selection process, which includes assessment of academic work and interviews, and instead held a single, written, multiple-choice test, claiming that it was more objective and less prone to manipulation.

Selected candidates set up ‘1158 Front’

The selected candidates formed a ‘1158 Front’ to seek appointment letters after some guest teachers in the state challenged their recruitment. In 2022, a single-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down the recruitment process.

However, two years later, in 2024, a division bench of the high court okayed the process, following which all 1,158 selected candidates were given postings, and they joined various government colleges.

However, on July 14, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran set overturned the HC’s 2024 order and directed the Punjab government to start a fresh recruitment process as per the 2018 UGC regulations.

The SC bench acknowledged that the quashing would “cause hardships” to the selected candidates, but also noted that a “challenge to the recruitment was made during the pendency of the process, and appointments were subject to the Court orders”.

‘Politics behind recruitment process’

The recruitment process was started by the then Congress government led by Charanjit Singh Channi, who lost the 2022 assembly elections, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power.

The AAP government also faced pressure from ‘1158 Front’ and after the HC’s 2024 order, it gave postings to the candidates.

The Supreme Court said that the recruitment “was motivated by political exigency in the form of the impending assembly elections in the state of Punjab".

“The entire process… was followed not in the interest of the state or for the cause of higher education but for narrow political gains,” said the court.

The AAP too had backed the process and supported the selection in court later. It argued that the state was empowered to have its own hiring procedures and was not bound by the Public Service Commission or University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations.

The SC said that Punjab had voluntarily adopted the UGC regulations and was duty-bound to follow them and so it was required to make such appointments through the public service commission.

Irregularities in hiring flagged

The initial proposal was limited to filling 177 posts for newly opened colleges on an urgent basis, but it was later expanded to include more posts of 931 assistant professors and 50 librarians. The added vacancies had already been referred to the Punjab Public Service Commission, which was later not made part of the “urgent” process.