KOCHI: In a major set back for the LDF government which was already landed in trouble after nepotism row, the Kerala High Court on Thursday quashed the appointment of PM Sahala, wife of Thalassery MLA AM Shamsheer, as Assistant Professor in Science on contract basis in the School of Pedagogical Sciences. The court also directed the Kannur university to appoint the first rank holder MP Bindu, who filed the petition before the court challenging the appointment.
Citing a Supreme Court order, the court observed that the post was a single cadre post, hence there cannot be any reservation in a single post cadre.
The petitioner submitted that the walk-in- interview for the post of Assistant Professor in Science on contract basis in the school was held in June 14, 2019. Though the rank list had not been published, she learnt that she had got the first rank while Sahala got only second rank. To the utter dismay of the petitioner, the second rank holder had been appointed to the post. She pointed out that for contractual appointments, the University did not follow the reservation norms. The University did not even follow the reservation rules in the contractual appointments made earlier in the school.
The petitioner alleged that in order to give appointment to the wife of sitting MLA of Thalassery, of the ruling party, the University was claiming to follow the Rules of Reservation even though the appointment is a contractual appointment
She pointed out that the university has made an appointment from the open category for contract appointment in the language education conducted in March. Later University also appointed candidates from the OBC category in the Assistant Professor in Mathematics. Therefore, the University should have appointed a candidate from the open category for the appointment of Assistant Professor in science if the university is following the reservation rules. She said that the appointment of Sahala is absolutely illegal.
According to University, the last appointment was made from a general category. Therefore, latest appointment had to be made from the reservation category. It argued that as there were no candidates from the OBC community or the SC community, the seat went to a candidate from the Muslim community.