Chennai: Teachers are architects of the nation and play a pivotal role in shaping students’ futures, said Madras high court, criticising Tamil Nadu govt for continuing to rely on guest lecturers to teach arts, science and technology subjects in govt colleges instead of making regular appointments.Setting aside a 2024 order of a single judge that permitted regularisation of guest lecturers in govt and constituent colleges without a competitive selection process, a division bench of Justice R Suresh Kumar (since retired) and Justice V Lakshminarayanan said the situation arose solely because of the state’s failure to undertake regular recruitment of assistant professors.“The present state of affairs has come about only on account of the failure of the State in not going for a regular recruitment of assistant professors. Court’s time is wasted in such litigations,” the bench observed.The bench had reserved orders on Feb 4 on appeals filed by the state govt challenging the single judge’s ruling and delivered its verdict on Wednesday.The court held that guest lecturers appointed in colleges in the absence of statutory rules cannot seek regularisation as a matter of right without undergoing a proper selection procedure.However, in a relief to the guest lecturers, the bench directed the state govt to grant them 15 marks as weightage for their teaching experience and provide age relaxation in future recruitment processes.The court noted that although the state govt had initially decided in 2020 to regularise guest lecturers through an interview-based selection process, it later changed its policy and opted to fill vacant posts through a competitive written examination conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), making guest lecturers also subject to the same selection procedure.Challenging this change in policy, the guest lecturers approached the high court contending that the govt could not alter its stand midway after initiating the regularisation process.Accepting their plea, the single judge in 2024 had quashed the GOs relating to recruitment through competitive examinations conducted by the TRB.Allowing the govt’s appeals against the order, the division bench directed the TRB to proceed with its original plan to fill around 4,000 vacant assistant professor posts in govt and constituent colleges through a written competitive examination, while extending certain concessions to guest lecturers.
