Persons who pursued degrees on regular classes are only competent to become a professor

Yugashree | School of Law Sastra University, Thanjavur | 28^th April 2020

M.Sakthivel vs. The State Of Tamil Nadu

Summary:

Petitioner studied 10^th standard in the year 1991 and then he completed M.A., M.Phil in Annamalai University and the mode of education was distance. As the petitioner had a flair for the legal profession, he pursued five years L.L.B degree from 2010- 2015 in R.K.M. College, Chittoor, which is affiliated to Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, obtaining 53.39% marks. Then he enrolled himself as an advocate in the year 2016. The petitioner joined M.L., Degree in Labour and Administrative Law, conducted by the Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras, under Private study,

 In 2015-2017 securing 58.33% of marks and also appeared for the State Eligibility Test (SET) and successfully qualified himself in September 2017. The petitioner is fully qualified for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor/Assistant Professor. The writ petitioner participated in the process of selection. However, he was not permitted to attend the interview on the ground that the petitioner acquired the qualification in Law Degree through private study, which is inappropriate and not valid for the purpose of granting appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in Law.

But respondent stated that as per the Notification, only the candidates, who have done their degree course through regular college are eligible for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in Law. The writ petitioner acquired degree through private study and is not eligible for appointment to the post Assistant Professor/Assistant Professor in Law. Thus, the writ petition is liable to be rejected.

Courts view and Judgement:

Court opined that profession of teaching is a noble one. There cannot be any compromise in respect of educational qualifications to be prescribed for appointment to the teaching faculty. The faculty of law is directly connected with the Judiciary. Thus, the persons who all possess the requisite qualification in its letter and spirit must alone be considered for appointment to the post of Assistant professor in Law.

None of these methods are equal to regular course, which all are regularly conducted by Universities and colleges. The very object of undergoing the regular courses and understand the scope of teaching, enabling them to get appointment to the post of teaching faculty. Persons who have not undergone the regular classes through regular Course may be talented persons. However, in order to maintain the equality, in the matter of providing public employment, a particular scheme of education is approved for the purpose of providing employment to the law faculty. It 

The teachers who have studied in regular classes alone are competent to take classes, as they are aware of the methodology of teaching profession and the class room atmosphere and court dismissed the writ petition.