In Brief
The Supreme Court invalidated the recruitment of 981 Assistant Professors and 67 Librarians in Punjab's Government Degree Colleges, holding that the State violated both the UGC Regulations, 2010 (which it had formally adopted) and constitutional requirements regarding Public Service Commission consultation. The Court found that a 45-day expedited process replacing merit-based UGC procedures with a simple written test was arbitrary and likely politically motivated ahead of elections. The State failed to follow prescribed procedures for excluding posts from the Commission's purview and arbitrarily abandoned established selection standards without justification. The entire recruitment was quashed and the State directed to commence fresh recruitment under current UGC Regulations.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.