HC allows engineering college to terminate service of faculty due to closure of course

Members of the faculty in an engineering college cannot claim the right to remain in service till the age of superannuation once the unaided department, in which they worked, has been validly closed and posts are abolished, stated the High Court of Karnataka.

A division bench comprising Justice D.K. Singh and Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju made these observations while allowing an appeal filed by Malnad College of Engineering, Hassan.

However, the bench directed the college to pay ₹40 lakh each as financial assistance to the the faculty members taking note that they had worked for a long time in the college, and them losing their job before the age of superannuation due to closure of the department.

Single judge order

The college had appealed against a single judge’s December 2023 direction to continuing the services of the two professors till they attain superannuation age of 65 years as per regulations of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) despite winding up the Automobile Engineering Department.

The single judge had passed the order in favour of M.K Ravishankar and K.P. Ravikumar, who were as professors in the department since 1997 and 2005, respectively.

The bench noted that the college decided to close the department due to decline in number of students opting for the automobile engineering course. Both the Visvesvaraya Technological University and the AICTE had no objection to the college management’s decision to close the department. The bench noted that the college had also closed the Industrial and Production Engineering department from the academic session 2021-22.

Once the self-financing department was closed, the petitioner-professors had no right to continue in service as the post to which they were appointed were abolished, the bench said while stating they would have continued in service till superannuation had the department not been closed.