Recruitment: LHC says it’s not the domain of a court to examine Q&E criteria

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) held that it is not the domain of a court to examine the qualification and the eligibility criteria in the recruitment process, the institution itself can resolve such matters best.

A division bench of the LHC passed this order in an appeal of Lahore College for Women University through its chancellor against the decision of a single bench of the august court which asked the appellant to issue an appointment letter of the respondent Dr Rehana Kausar as professor of Urdu.

The bench observed that under the Lahore College for Women University, Ordinance 2002, when there is a difference of opinion between the selection board and syndicate, the matter shall be referred to the chancellor and the chancellor is the final authority whose decision cannot be questioned through a constitutional petition.

The respondent applied for the post of professor of Urdu but the selection board after obtaining external expert evaluation reports and interviews of the candidates unanimously found the candidates as not up to the marks and decided to re-advertise the posts.

Thereafter, the said posts were re-advertised and a sub-committee instead of obtaining fresh external expert evaluation as required under service statutes clause 6(5), decided to consider the previous external evaluation report and recommended the respondent for appointment to the post. However, the syndicate unanimously referred the matter back for review.

The selection board again decided unanimously to re-advertise the post, however, the syndicate decided to get a fresh external evaluation report instead of re-advertising it.

The matter after a dissenting view of the syndicate taken about the recommendations of the selection board was referred to the chancellor. The chancellor recommended that the post of professor of Urdu be re-advertised.

The respondent Dr Rehana challenged the decision of the chancellor and got an order in her favour.

The university challenged the decision of the single bench before the LHC and the bench allowed the petition of the university.

The bench said the courts are not the substitute for a selection board or syndicate and cannot direct an appointing authority to issue an appointment letter in favour of any candidate.

The bench observed that the court rather can only direct the authorities concerned for reconsideration of a matter if any illegality or irregularity is found and added the chancellor is the final authority in the matter in question.

The bench observed as such no prejudice was caused to anyone including respondent Dr Rehana on the direction of the chancellor who asked to re-advertise the post.

The bench said the recommendation for appointment of a candidate against a certain post exclusively falls within the domain of the concerned authority and interfering in that domain would amount to committing judicial overreach which is unwarranted by law, the court concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024