- (1.) The two petitioners, who had responded to Advertisement No.2 issued by the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi1 on 29 August 2013 for one post of Assistant Professor in Kayachikitsa, Ayurveda, have filed this petition for quashing the selection and appointment of respondent no.7-Dr. Divya Kajaria on the said post.
(2.) Ordinance 11A of the Ordinances of University deals with the procedure for appointments of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors and in order to appreciate the controversy involved in this petition, it is necessary to first examine it. The Ordinance requires the candidates to upload their applications online through a software available on the portal "Recruitment and Assessment Cell"2 on the website of the University. It also provides for short-listing of the candidates for interview. This is initially done at the department level by the 'Faculty Affairs Committee - Level-I'3 and finally by the 'Faculty Affairs Committee - Level-II'4. The constitution of FAC-I and FAC-II is also provided in the Ordinance. The terms of reference of FAC-I are basically to : (a) conduct a preliminary examination of applications for meeting the minimum eligibility requirements and for completeness; (b) invite reference letters for the short-listed applicants; (c) invite short-listed candidates for personal interaction and seminar presentation/ performance and evaluate it and to make recommendations to FAC-II of the candidates who can be called for interview by the Selection Committee; and (d) ensure that no application received prior to the cut-off date remains pending with the FAC-I after 60 days from the cut-off date and in case FAC-I fails to complete the process of selection within 60 days from the cut-off date, the Vice-Chancellor of the University can constitute a Special Committee to complete the process of selection.
(3.) The Ordinance also provides the procedure for short-listing the candidates. The short-listed candidates are then invited for a personal visit to the department to interact with the teachers of the department and present a seminar. The FAC-I then prepares a final report, in order of merit, to recommend not more than 10 names per post to FAC-II.;