Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has rejected a writ petition filed by the Archdiocesan Board of Education and Diocesan Society of Education challenging the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations 2010 and UGC Regulations 2018 pertaining to appointments of teachers and other academic staff in affiliated institutions and colleges established and administered by the religious minorities.
The Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice R N Laddha have however protected appointments made during the interim relief granted prior to the current order.
“By orders dated July 1, 2014, and December 8, 2020, we had granted interim reliefs in this matter. Suppose any minority institutions have already made appointments based on such interim reliefs, in that case, we think that such appointments ought not to be disturbed simply because we may not have accepted the petitioners’ challenge at least partially. This is because we have noticed a lot of confusion in the Goa University Statutes concerning the provisions dealing with the appointment of teachers and other academic staff in the colleges affiliated with Goa University,” it said in the 49-page order.
The High Court observed that to align with the UGC Regulations issued from time to time, the Goa University went on enacting Statutes without assessing the impact of such new Statutes on the existing Statutes. Moreover, to date, Goa University does not appear to have carried out deleting or weeding out the earlier statutes.