The Madras High Court has struck down the eligibility criteria for pre-law Assistant Professors and observed that these qualifications suffer from ‘arbitrariness', ‘patent irrationality’, and ‘unreasonableness’.
Madras High Court has abolished the condition that candidates who want to join as Assistant Professor in the pre-law courses in government law colleges in Tamil Nadu should have an enrolment as an advocate along with having a postgraduate degree in the relevant subject and must have a Master of Laws (ML) degree.
The court observed these qualifications suffer from ‘arbitrariness', ‘patent irrationality’, and ‘unreasonableness’ and directed the state government authorities to 'revisit' the entire eligibility criteria.
On Thursday, a bench of Justice V Parthiban and Justice N Kirubakaran passed the judgement on a set of writ petitions challenging the eligibility criteria recommended for the post of Assistant Professors in the government law colleges.
As per the orders, G.O. Ms No 1349 and G.O. Ms No 264 dated 19.11. 1985, and 20.12.2005 declared as illegal and unconstitutional as these are repugnant to the least standards given by the Bar Council of India (BCI) in the Legal Education Rules, 2008, in terms of section 7 (1) (h) (i) read with section 49 (a) and (d) of the Advocates Act, 1961.
The court said that the candidates with cross major degrees or who obtained their master's degrees via distance education or correspondence are ineligible for appointment as Assistant Professors (Pre-Law).
The Bench also clarified that the appointments already made during the years 2014 and 2017-18 will not be affected by this ruling.
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