TMI Blog2002 (1) TMI 1290X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... xperience in post graduate teaching and/or research at the University/National level Institution including experience of guiding research at doctoral level. OR An outstanding scholar with established reputation which significant contribution to knowledge. Additional qualifications prescribed by the University Grants Commission were also stated as: Specialisation: M.Sc., Ph.D. in Marine Science or any related subject with outstanding accomplishments of teaching and research in branches of Marine Science, Marine Biology, Marine Biotechnology Marine Geology, Chemical Oceanography or Physical Oceanography with a proven record of publications in international journals . Both the appellant and the respondent No. 5 applied for the post. Both of them were Readers in the Department of Marine Science, the respondent No. 5 being senior most. Both were called for interviews on 13th September 1995. Sometime before the date of the interview a note was written by the respondent No. 2 as Head of the Department to the Vice Chancellor requesting for the holding of an urgent interview for the appointment of Professor; Marine Science. The note placed on record an appointment letter received ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The Selection Committee found that neither the appellant nor the respondent No. 5 were suitable for the post. In October 1995, a fresh advertisement was issued for the post. This time, although the essential qualifications as advertised in 1994 remained the same, the additional qualifications were amended so that the specialisation read: Professor of Marine Science: Specialisation: Any branch of Marine Sciences, namely physical Oceanography, Marine Chemistry, Marine Geology or Marine Geology or Marine Biology. The requirement of 'M.Sc.-Ph.D. in Marine Science or any related subject with outstanding accomplishment of Teaching and Research and also with proven record of publications in international journals' was done away with. A fresh Selection Committee was constituted pursuant to the 1995 advertisement. It met on 20th May 1996. This time the respondent No. 2 participated. The Committee recommended the appointment of the appellant. The appellant's appointment was accepted by the Executive Council and a formal order appointing the appellant as Professor of Marine Science was issued to him on 8th June 1996. The respondent No. 5 filed a second writ pe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... an amendment to the Act in 2000, the Visitor is now known as the Chancellor of the University. The Chancellor is the Head of the University. Among the authorities of the University, we are concerned with the Executive Council and the Academic Council. The Executive Council is the principal executive body of the University (Section 18) and is empowered by Section 23 (2) to make Statutes subject to the approval of the Chancellor dealing with a range of subjects including the appointment of teachers and other academic staff of the University. The Academic Council is, on the other hand, the principal academic body of the University and is mandated to 'subject to the provisions of the Act, the Statutes and Ordinances, co-ordinate and exercise general supervision over the academic policies of the University'. The first Statutes of the University are set out in the Schedule to the Act. They have been amended from time to time and further Statutes have also been incorporated in the Schedule. We are concerned primarily with Statutes 8 and 15. Statute 8(1) empowers the Executive Council: (i ) to create teaching and academic posts, to determine the number and emoluments of s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se the 1995 advertisement and hand-out it will be seen that the minimum qualifications prescribed for a candidate were that he/she had to be: (a) an eminent scholar; (b) with work of high quality; (c) actively engaged in research; (d) with 10 years' experience in post-graduate teaching and/or research at the University/ national level institution including experience of guiding research at doctoral level OR (a) an outstanding scholar (b) with established reputation; (c) with significant contribution to knowledge. For a candidate to be qualified under the second limb, apart from a brilliant academic record and having an established standing, the candidate must have been responsible for original research which had added to the field of the particular science, not in small measure but significantly. The appellant has not sought to justify his appointment under this limb but has claimed that he was qualified under the first. For the purposes of this judgment, we will assume that the appellant fulfilled the first three qualifications under the first limb. The difficulty arises in connection with the fourth requirement, namely, 10 years experience of teaching ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... November 1985, the University also considered his application and called him for an interview in September 1985 though according to a strict interpretation of the eligibility criteria the respondent No. 5 was not qualified. Finally in Dr. Kumar Bar Das V. Utkal University 1999 (1) SCC 453, this Court in construing similar eligibility criteria has held (at p. 458) that the research required could include pre-doctoral research experience. Then it was said that the Selection Committee was faultily constituted. Statute 15 has already been quoted earlier. According to the Registrar's affidavit, the Academic Council had prepared a panel of subject experts and forwarded it to the Executive Council. The panel as approved by the Executive Council was (1) Prof. Subba Rao or Prof. V.V. Modi ; (2) Dr. J. Samant or Dr. D. Chandramohan; (3) Prof. K.T. Damodaran or Prof. R.K. Banerjee, Prof. Subba Rao and Prof. V.V. Modi had both regretted their inability to be part of the Selection Committee. Dr. D. Chandramohan who had been mentioned as an alternative choice by the Executive Council was inducted into the panel. According to the respondent No. 5, the panel of experts had been prepared by ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... act in a judicial or quasi-judicial matter must act impartially. If however, 'bias' and 'partiality' be defined to mean the total absence of preconceptions in the mind of the judge, then no one has ever had a fair trial and no one ever will. The human mind, even at infancy, is no blank piece of paper. We are born with predispositions and the processes of education, formal and informal, create attitudes which precede reasoning in particular instances and which, therefore, by definition, are prejudices . It is not every kind of bias which in law is taken to vitiate an act. It must be a prejudice which is not founded on reason, and actuated by self interest whether pecuniary or personal. Because of this element of personal interest, bias is also seen as an extension of the principle of natural justice that no man should be a judge in his own cause. Being a state of mind, a bias is sometimes impossible to determine. Therefore, the Courts have evolved the principle that it is sufficient for a litigant to successfully impugn an action by establishing a reasonable possibility of bias or proving circumstances from which the operation of influences affecting a fair asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
