Relief for asst profs as court upholds appeal against quashing

Bathinda: In a big relief to the assistant professors, who were waiting for their recruitment to be restored for the last over two years, a double bench of the Punjab and Haryana court on Monday allowed their appeal against the quashing order of the single bench.
The bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma on Sept 3 had reserved the order, which was pronounced on Monday.
The Punjab govt in Oct 2021 had made appointments of 1,091 assistant professors and 67 librarians for govt colleges in the state. While 124 assistant professors had joined the colleges on Dec 21, 2021, 483 had got appointment letters but they were not allotted the stations.
The 484 other assistant professors and 67 librarians had got their names in the list of selected candidates but could not be appointed. A score of petitions were filed against these appointments on technical issues, including process for appointments.
A single bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on Aug 8, 2022, quashed the recruitment forcing the assistant professors to file an appeal against the order in Sept 2022. The state govt too had filed an appeal against the quashing order.
After the quashing of their recruitment, the assistant professors had started protests at the residence of the then education minister, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, at Barnala. Later when Harjot Singh Bains was appointed as the education minister, the professors had started a pucca morcha at his native village of Gambhirpur in Ropar district and it is continuing till today.
“The court verdict has given us a new lease of life. We were desperate to get the positive order as many of us have passed through traumatic times and even faced the non-cooperative attitude of the authorities initially. Finally, we are thankful to the state govt for standing by us. We hope the state govt will provide posting to all the selected candidates and allot us the stations,” said an assistant professor.