Delhi HC reserves order in plea by NLU Delhi Professor challenging process for appointment of Vice-Chancellor

The Delhi High Court has reserved order in petition challenging the process undertaken for the appointment of Vice-Chancellor to National Law University, Delhi (Dr Prasannanshu v. Selection Committee for VC NLUD)..Order was reserved by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh after hearing the parties at length. .The petitioner before the Court is Dr Prasannanshu who had joined NLU Delhi in 2009 as an Associate Professor and was promoted as a Professor in July 2015. .Certain that he fulfilled all conditions of eligibility contained in the advertisement calling for applications for the post of Vice-Chancellor, the petitioner had applied for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University..It is the petitioner's grievance that in spite of fulfilling the eligibility requirements and having a glorious academic record, he was not called for the interview round that was conducted in February 2020, without providing any reason. .The petitioner argued that the Selection Committee's decision of not calling him for the interview round was grossly illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and not germane to the principle of intelligible differentia..The petitioner asserted that as per the UGC Act and its Regulations of 2018, a Selection Committee was not empowered to outrightly reject the candidature of a candidate who met the minimum eligibility without inviting him/her for an interactive/interview meeting..On the last hearing, the Court had asked NLU Delhi to provide assistance with respect to the factual aspects and the legal position in the matter..Opposing the petition, NLU Delhi contended that the petitioner did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the advertisement calling for applications for the post of Vice-Chancellor. .It was submitted that since the petitioner completed his LL.B in the year 2013, he could be said to be Professor of Law for 10 years. While the varsity accepted that the importance of interdisciplinarity it was asserted that the Vice-Chancellor must be a Professor of law. .Senior Advocate Rajiv Bansal with Advocate Karan Suneja appeared for the petitioner..NLU Delhi was represented by Advocates Rajshekhar Rao, Sanjay Vashishtha, SD Sharma, Anandh Venkataramani, Areeb Amanullah..Read the Order: