LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday suspended the operation of an order passed by the chancellor of University of Agriculture of Faisalabad under which appointments of over 200 faculty members and other staff of the varsity was declared illegal.

Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi passed the stay order on petitions by Dr Sidra Ijaz and others through Barrister Bilal Hassan Minto and Barrister Sarim Israr.

The counsel argued that the impugned order was not just a sheer violation of the law but set an dangerous precedent where a chancellor of an university can arbitrarily cancel an appointment process spanning over more than a year.

They said the process included advertisement in the national dailies, scrutiny of the applicants and evaluation through a written test, followed by interviews conducted by selection boards constituted under the law.

The lawyers argued that the court should determine whether a chancellor was empowered to set aside the marks awarded in an interview conducted by a validly constituted selection board under the law to check the suitability of a candidate especially when the chancellor had no means or record before him to know how a candidate performed in an interview.

They further argued that the impugned order was non-speaking with respect to the appointments of the petitioners as it did not even discuss the appointments of the petitioners and yet the appointments had been declared illegal.

They stated that there was no provision of law or a judgment of the superior courts of the country that would stop a vice chancellor from holding syndicate meetings in the last three months of his tenure.

The lawyers argued that the petitioners were appointed following fulfilling all requisite formalities including approval from the syndicate after which vested rights created in their favours could not have been taken away by the chancellor.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Sethi suspended the impugned order passed by the Punjab governor in the capacity of the chancellor on Dec 24, 2024, and sought replies from all the respondents by March 12.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2025