Allahabad HC asks AMU registrar to be cautious in issuing ads for lecturer's post

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad High Court has directed the registrar of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to be cautious and precise in issuing advertisements for the post of lecturer in the future ensuring that no ambiguity surrounds the eligibility criteria. The court in its order passed on March 12 dealt with a dispute whether candidates with an M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry should be considered eligible for the Lecturer (Chemistry) position at AMU.

The AMU had issued advertisements in 2019 and 2020 for the post of Lecturer (Chemistry), which mentioned that candidates with a Master's degree in a "concerned/relevant/allied subject" would be eligible for the said post. The petitioners, Amma Khatoon and two others, moved the high court seeking court permission to participate in the selection process arguing that the use of terms like "concerned/relevant/allied subject" in the advertisement was ambiguous as it created confusion whether candidates with an M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry (as was the case with the petitioners) would qualify or not.

Ambiguous words in AMU advertisements

The counsel appearing for the petitioners argued that the 'MSc in Industrial Chemistry' of their clients qualified as an "allied subject" and they would be eligible for the post advertised by the AMU . Disposing of the petitions, Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery observed, "Such ambiguity should be removed i.e. words shall be chosen carefully and instead of ambiguous words, the University must specifically mention about qualification so that all eligible candidates may participate in advertisement and no one be left prejudiced." The court said the AMU's actions were on the face of it "arbitrary" as on one hand, they adopted that M.Sc. Industrial Chemistry would fall within an "allied subject".

Therefore, they treated it to be an eligibility for consideration for the post of Lecturer (Chemistry). However, an arbitrary decision was taken that their candidature would be considered in the last if the candidates having M.Sc. (Chemistry) were not available or not found suitable. As the selection was already completed while the petition was pending, the court said, "At this stage, Court takes note that during the pendency of this writ petition i.e. for the last 5 years, much water has flown and that posts have already been filled up and since their selection are not under challenge, therefore, relief sought in the present writ petition is rendered infructuous." The court disposed of the petition with a direction to the AMU registrar to "remain cautious in future" while publishing advertisements, choosing the words in the same and removing ambiguity in them.