SC Clarifies – AICTE Career Advancement Regulations Do Not Govern State Recruitment of Professors in State Government Engineering Colleges
On 8.9.2015 the Gujarat PSC invited applications for seven posts of Professors in the Government Engineering Colleges.
The candidate applied for the post of Professor in Plastic Engineering and the recruitment was conducted as per the Government Engineering Colleges Recruitment Rules, 2012. She did not challenge the advertisement or eligibility and method of selection prior to interview held on 17.12.2015.
The candidate had secured 28 out of qualifying 45 marks for the unreserved category. She was not recommended for selection.
The candidate filed writ petition to challenge selection process.
The Division Bench of the High Court held that the AICTE (Career Advancement Scheme for the Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Technical Institutions) (Degree) Regulations, 2012, govern even the direct recruitment of Professor in Government Engineering Colleges in the State and set-aside the selection process.
HELD The entire scheme of the Regulations proceeds on one foundational basis that the person to whom the Regulations apply must already be an incumbent or a newly appointed Assistant Professor/Associate Professor or Professor. The Regulations are not Recruitment Rules but are Promotion and Progression Rules. The expression ‘direct recruitment’ is used in the Regulations, in the limited context of Career Advancement Scheme entry levels, i.e. in determining how a person already within the institutional framework enters the Career Advancement Scheme ladder. The Academic Performance Index, the weightage table, and the Index based evaluation system, presuppose a service profile, institutional record, teaching performance and research output accumulated within the academic system. The provisions of the Regulations, therefore, cannot logically apply to a person who is not yet a part of that system.
The AICTE Regulations and State Rules operate in different field, therefore, the question of one superseding the other does not arise.
It is a settled principle that a candidate having participated in the process of selection, without protest, cannot challenge the Rules of the game after being declared unsuccessful.
Judgment dated 19.1.2026 of the Supreme Court of India in SLP (Civil) No.27710 of 2025 of Gujarat Public Service Commission Vs. Gnaneshwary Dushyantkuar Shah and others
