ALOK SHARMA,J. - (1.) Under challenge is the Commissioner, Department of College Education's e-mail dated 3-10-2017 rejecting the petitioner's application for attestation of his Ph.D. Degree awarded by the Pacific Academic of Higher Education and Research University (hereafter 'the University') established by the Pacific Academy of Higher Education and Research University Act, 2010 (Act of 2010) (hereafter 'the Act of 2010') on the ground that as a private University, unitary in nature, it was not authorized to hire out a guide outside the faculty of University for its Ph.D. students in terms of the Regulations of the UGC. And for this reason the petitioner's Ph.D. Degree with a Ph.D. guide not on the University's faculty could not be endorsed and authenticated by him.
(2.) The facts of the case are that the petitioner while teaching at the Siddartha Institute of Pharmacy, Dehradun, with its "no objection" applied for and was registered as a Ph.D. Student in the department of Pharmacology, faculty of Pharmacy of the University in 2012. One Professor Firoj Anwar at the relevant time not on the faculty of the University but a faculty member of the Siddartha Institute of Pharmacy, Dehradun was appointed as the petitioner's Ph.D. Guide apparently for the purported reason of his specialization in the field in which the petitioner was doing Ph.D. The petitioner's case is that on completion of his research and submission of his thesis in the year 2014 he was evaluated by two external examiners and underwent a viva voice. Thereafter the petitioner was awarded Ph.D. Degree on 26-5-2015, which the petitioner claims was as per the UGC (Minimum Standard and Procedure for Awards of M.Phil/ Ph.D. Degree) Regulation, 2009 (hereafter 'the Regulations, 2009'). Thereafter the petitioner started teaching as an Associate Professor at the Glocal University, Saharanpur, UP, where he continues till date.
(3.) The petitioner's case is that in April, 2017 he got an offer for the position of an Associate Professor with the King Abdula Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To avail that offer he was required to get attestation of his Ph.D. Degree awarded by the University from the Commissioner, Department of College Education. However, vide e-mail dated 9-6-2017 the Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan (hereinafter 'the Commissioner') took a view that the petitioner's Ph.D. Degree could not be authenticated by the department because his Ph.D. guide Firoj Anwar was not a regular faculty member of the University, and the University being a private one Unitary in nature was not entitled to appoint Ph.D. Guides who were not on its faculty and not employed/ working with it on a regular basis. It has been submitted that the view taken by the Commissioner with regard to appointment of Ph.D. Guide outside regular faculty of the University for Ph.D. students entailing non authentication of the degree was not only arbitrary, but also discriminatory as the Commissioner had earlier on 18-3-2016 attested a Ph.D. Degree granted to one student Mohd. Afzal from the same University, where the same Professor Firoj Anwar was his guide.;