Karnataka to file SLP in SC against HC order on guest lecturers

Belagavi: The government will file a special leave petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court order on the compliance of UGC guidelines (of having NET, SLET or PhD) while selecting guest lecturers for government first grade colleges.

After MLCs across party lines demanded relief for more than 6,000 guest lecturers who do not have UGC-specified qualifications, by enacting a special law or through any other model, Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar told the Council on Thursday that an executive order to file an SLP before the Supreme Court is already issued after availing of legal opinion.

“We are in favour of guest lecturers, and we are also studying the model of Haryana government in a similar matter related to the technical education department there,” he said, in reply to a calling attention motion by Congress MLC Prakash Hukkeri. Sudhakar also suggested BJP leaders to urge Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan take steps to bring changes in UGC guidelines allowing the state government to make special rules to select guest lecturers lacking NET, SLET or PhD qualification. As guest lecturers are selected temporarily against vacant posts, they cannot be given job security as per rules now, he added.

S L Bhoje Gowda, S V Sankanur, Hemalatha Nayak, N Ravikumar, Ramesh Babu and other MLCs stressed the need to provide ‘justice’ for guest lecturers who have served for over 20 years with lesser salary.