Overview
- The Supreme Court on July 14–15, 2025 set aside all 1,158 assistant professor and librarian appointments in Punjab’s government colleges.
- A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran overturned a September 2024 Punjab and Haryana High Court division bench order that had revived the recruitments.
- The court found that the state had discarded UGC-mandated academic assessments and viva-voce interviews in favor of a hastily organized multiple-choice exam before the 2022 assembly polls.
- Justices ruled the selection process arbitrary and politically driven, pointing to executive interference aimed at narrow electoral gains.
- Punjab must now launch a fresh recruitment exercise strictly under the 2018 University Grants Commission regulations to ensure transparency and merit.