CHENNAI: Justice R N Manjula of the Madras High Court has held that the one-year LLM programme is valid for appointments to government departments and universities as it is approved by the UGC.
The order was passed on a petition filed by Sangeetha Sriram of Chennai, who was denied appointment to the post of assistant professor for the human rights department in government law colleges even though she had cleared the written examination and the interview held by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB).
“As stated, the one-year LLM programme has been approved by the UGC and has been accepted as qualification to get enrolled in PhD in the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University. No invalidation can be attached to the degree for the purpose of getting appointment in public departments or universities,” the judge reasoned.
She directed the respondent authorities to include her name in the selection and issue an appointment order within eight weeks.
The petitioner, who had completed the one-year LLM course at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru, applied for the post of assistant professor (human rights) as per a 2018 notification of the TRB. The petitioner appeared for the written examination and scored first rank, and also attended the interview. However, the selection list released on May 14, 2019, did not have her name.