The Allahabad High Court on Monday stopped Lucknow University from finalising the selection of 180 assistant professors for time being for its various departments while allowing it to keep on the selection process. 

A Lucknow bench of the high court put an interim stay on a petition by an aspiring applicant for the post of assistant professor in the Anthropology Department, who had questioned the rationale behind reserving seats in various departments.

The bench of Justice Irshad Ali also asked the varsity to keep one post of the assistant professor in the Anthropology Department vacant for the petitioner, Dr. Preeti Singh, a general category candidate, till the decision on her petition.

The bench also asked the state government and University to file their replies to Singh's petition by March 10, the next date for the hearing of the case. Dr. Singh has contended in her petition that owing to the modality adopted by the varsity for reserving seats, none of the four vacant seats of the Anthropology Department has been left open for the general category candidates.

She pointed out that instead of reserving seats department-wise, the varsity has proceeded in the appointment process, treating itself as one body for all 180 vacant seats due to which no seats have been left open for the general category candidates in many departments. Taking note of the contentions, raised by the petitioner, the bench put an interim stay on the final selection on the post of assistant professor for candidates till examination of the legality of the varsity's reservation formulae.

Justice Ali put the interim stay observing that as per the past rulings of both the Supreme Court and this court, reserving seats department-wise or subject-wise would have been the appropriate methodology rather than treating the entire university as a single unit and reserving seats on the basis of all the vacancies of all departments put together.

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