New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has upheld the prescription of a PhD degree as an eligibility condition for the grant of higher Academic Grade Pay (AGP) of Rs 10,000 to Lecturers (Selection Grade) in government polytechnics.

A Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan held that the distinction between PhD and non-PhD holders is neither arbitrary nor discriminatory, dismissing writ petitions by senior lecturers without a PhD who had challenged the All India Council for Technical Education’s (AICTE) clarification requiring the qualification for advancement to AGP of Rs 10,000.

The petitioners, appointed as lecturers between 1989 and 1999 and presently working as Lecturers (Selection Grade) with AGP of Rs 9,000, contended that their junior colleagues possessing PhD degrees had been granted the higher AGP, while they were excluded solely on account of not holding a doctoral qualification, in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. In its order, the Delhi High Court said that the prescription of a PhD as an eligibility criterion falls within the domain of the statutory expert body and has a clear nexus with the object of improving academic standards.

“The prescription of PhD qualification for Lecturers working in Selection Grade/Grade-IV is intended to achieve a legitimate objective, namely, to provide better quality education to students, on the assumption that higher-qualified teachers are better equipped to impart academic knowledge effectively,” the Justice Kshetarpal-led Bench observed.

“It is well-settled that courts must be slow to interfere with decisions taken by expert statutory bodies in academic matters, including qualifications for appointment, pay, promotion, or entitlement to higher scales, unless such actions are shown to be arbitrary, mala fide, or without nexus to the statutory object,” it added.

The Delhi High Court noted that while the original AICTE Regulations of 2010 and the Career Advancement Scheme Regulations of 2012 did not distinguish between PhD and non-PhD lecturers for placement in AGP of Rs 9,000, the 2016 clarification consciously introduced such a distinction to incentivise higher academic qualifications.

Concluding that the classification introduced by the 2016 clarification was rational and constitutionally valid, the Justice Kshetarpal-led Bench held that the grant of AGP Rs 10,000 only to PhD holders “cannot be said to be arbitrary, discriminatory, or violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.”

Ruling that the AICTE clarification was based on a “rational classification”, the Delhi High Court upheld the CAT’s rejection of the lecturers’ claims and dismissed all the writ petitions.

–IANS

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