Prof. Dr. SHEIKH ASRAR AHMAD vs GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB through Secretary Higher Education arts

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Prof. Dr. SHEIKH ASRAR AHMAD VS GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB through Secretary Higher Education arts.25, 199(1)(a) & 199(1)(c)---Constitutional jurisdiction of High Court---Scope---appointment of Vice Chancellors in Public Sector Universities in Punjab---Eligibility criteria---Determination----allocation of more marks to foreign Ph.D. degree holders---Policy decision---Discrimination----Reasonable classification---Challenge thrown to the recruitment process after not being selected---Legality---allegation of financial/management crisis in the previous tenures of some selected candidates without any specific nomination---Effect---Contention of the petitioner was that favourite candidates had been selected without even calling him for interview or issuing him a rejection letter---Validity---No question over the constitution of Search Committees or on any of their members had been raised---No specific violation of law, policy or merit was attributed to Search Committees but only vague and general allegations had been levelled by the petitioner---advertisement for the appointments in question reflected that only short-listed/eligible candidates were to be interviewed by the respective Search Committees---None of the candidates, in whose earlier tenures universities had undergone severe financial and management crisis, had been named specifically in the petition or arguments---None of the selected candidates, who were going to retire in few days, had been specified in the petition and the advertisement itself showed the maximum age of 65 years for the applicants---appointments of the VCs had already been made, thus, the petitioner was at liberty to exercise his right to information before the concerned forum in accordance with law and assail any such appointment on specific grounds depicting violation of any provision of law or the applicable policy while impleading the V.C. concerned---No room for a roving inquiry or fishing expedition was available to the petitioner---When petitioner was not called for interview, he filed the constitutional petition challenging the selection criteria, however, he ought to have challenged the selection criteria notified by the Government before applying for the post in question and not after having been rejected---In the absence of such timely challenge, it could be presumed that he accepted the criteria to be valid and expressed no reservation against it---V.Cs., who had earned their Ph.D. degrees from the top ranked institutions of the world, were expected that they should, while benefitting from their rich international exposure, endeavor to promote such excellence in the institutions headed by them, thus, selection criteria was not arbitrary and discriminatory but based on rational nexus with the object of classification---Constitutional petition was dismissed, in circumstances.

Prof. Dr. SHEIKH ASRAR AHMAD vs GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB through Secretary Higher Education arts — 2025 PLC(CS) 182 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

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