A bench of Supreme Court comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia has expressed serious concerns at the National Law University, Jodhpur,- supposed to be an institute of excellence, is being operated only with contractual teachers.
“To say the least, this is unacceptable and undesirable”, the Court observed.
The court was informed that there have been some amendment to the regulations which provide for 50 per cent permanent staff and 50 per cent contractual.
The Court noted that as per the regulations of the University Grants Commission, only 10 percent of the staff can be contractual staff.
The Court was appalled to know that University has no Vice Chancellor at the moment and that Registrar is also a contractual staff.
Senior advocate Dhruv Mehta representing Jodhpur Law University informed the court that they are not aided institution.
But that argument didn't find favour with the apex court, which observed that, “the point, however, remains that these are supposed to be institutions of excellence and you cannot expect excellence in institutions where there is constant inflow and outflow of teaching staff because they are contractual in character. It is time to remedy the position.”
The bench was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by the NLU-J in 2019 against a judgment of the division bench of the Rajasthan High Court which had struck down service regulations for employing teachers on contract basis for a tenure or on ad hoc term only and providing for termination of contract by giving one month's notice.
Advocate Rishabh Sancheti and other counsel on behalf of respondent teachers argued that the service conditions at Jodhpur National Law University are “manifestly arbitrary and unreasonable and in clear negation of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution”.
Alok Mathur is a law graduate. Journalism is his first love which he now pursues in the latter half of his career. Controversies and crime are the right triggers for him.
