The Kerala High Court on Thursday cancelled the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of the Chief Minister’s private secretary KK Ragesh, as the associate professor of Malayalam at Kannur University.
The petition was filed by Joseph Skariah, Assistant Professor of Malayalam at St. Berchmans College, Changanassery. He contended that though Varghese did not have the requisite teaching experience, she was called for an interview and the selection committee had given her first rank.
“Teaching experience can only be a real fact and not a fiction or an inference. It has to be actual and cannot be construed or inferred,” the court said and observed that some of the various spells of teaching experience claimed by Priya Varghese “cannot find favour in law”.
The court viewed that Priya Varghese did not have the relevant period of actual teaching experience as stipulated under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations of 2018. Justice Devan Ramachandran added that teaching during the PhD research cannot be considered an experience.
As per the UGC regulations, the period taken for PhD could be counted as teaching experience, only if the research was pursued simultaneously with teaching assignments.