After joining as Associate lecturer in 1969, I was
promoted as lecturer within an
year on the occurrence of a vacancy, but this promotion was cancelled
apparently on the implementation of the new service rules passed
by Board of Governors. On the completion of two years, in 1971, I got my
regular promotion as lecturer. In 1974,
a post of Assistant Professor (Instrumentation and Control) fell vacant as
Sri.P.K.Bharathan went on a foreign assignment in West Indies. As it was
exclusively for M.Tech (Instrumentation and Control Systems) there were only two internal candidates eligible
for the post, Dr.M.N.Neelakantan
who had returned after his PhD
from Australia and myself who had
returned after M.Tech from I.I.T.Madras.
There were many seniors ahead of me, but as per the qualifications specified
for the post in the advertisement, only we two were called for interview from
the college and another person from outside. I did not have any hope obviously
as Dr.MNN was clearly the person on better qualification and length of service.
I was in double minds whether to appear for the interview or not. On the day of
the interview, I had a lecture class at 8 AM
and as I was just going to the office to sign up after the class, Dr.MNN met me and
asked whether I am coming for the interview. I said, why should I as you are
certain to get it. He said, that is fine, but there are only three candidates
called for interview of which the external candidate has not come. If I am also
not appearing for the interview, there is a possibility that the post may
be re-advertised as there is only one
candidate. So, he requested me to appear for the interview and offered me a
treat in return. So, as per his request, I went back to my house, collected my
certificates and appeared for the interview. Prof.C.P.Kuriakose, Pro Vice Chancellor of Cochin University was the
expert in the panel and Dr.MNN was
interviewed for an hour. Then
came my turn and I entered the interview room and took my seat after wishing
the members of the panel. As soon as I sat down, Principal asked me: “What is
the percentage marks you got for your first degree?”. I said 79.6, then he calculated the
percentage from my marks-list on his working sheet and stated “ No, it is
wrong”. I was not sure, how to counter him. After 5 years of intensive study, I
got my degree and my expectation was to get at least 80%, but I narrowly missed
it. Naturally I had calculated my aggregate to two decimals after checking it
thoroughly several times and noted it down. Obviously, he wanted me to get into
an argument with him, which I politely refused. I simply stated:” Sir, it is
correct”. Now he took up another
one, my M.Tech Grade Point Average. In the application form,
the percentage marks only was asked for.
My GPA was 7.6/10 and so I wrote 76% with a foot note
CGPA 7.6/10. Principal asked me: How can
you say CGPA of 7.6/10 is 76%. Again, it was an obvious attempt to
pull me into an argument or show me in poor light in front of the panel.
Anyway, I think, others could easily understand his intention and the expert
took over from there. He asked me only
questions from my subject Control Systems and I had a satisfactory interview.
It was obvious that Dr.MNN was selected, but I recorded this only to show how
the head of an institution was trying to pull me down in an interview, probably
because I was not in his good books.
Continuing from where I left
in an earlier episode, things in REC were moving to a positive direction when the
new Principal, Dr. S.Unnikrishna Pillai
took over in 1983. He took steps to fill up all vacant posts through advertisement
in national dailies. There was a situation once in an engineering department in
REC when there was not even an assistant professor in one department to be the
head of the department and one workshop superintendent was re-designated as
assistant professor and was made head. Such situations were never to come
again.
At that time, there were just two
posts of professors in our department , one for B.Tech
and another M.Tech course. However, three posts of assistant professors
in Electrical Engg and one in Electronics were lying vacant. All these posts of
assistant professors were advertised. There were a few persons senior to me in
the department, but they did not have a PhD degree. Along with me, three others
only had PhD. Even though it was an open competition nation-wide, not many
applied from outside and only the internal candidates were competing with one
another. In the selection, all of us with PhD were promoted to AP post
including my friend Venkataramani for
Electronics. But another person who had joined REC two years before me could
not get promoted as he had only an M.Tech degree. The selection committee obviously gave consideration for higher qualification
and publications along with length of service. The purpose of the all India
selection was obviously to choose the
best candidate from among the
applicants.
It was true that the condition
of the particular senior who could not
get selected was a little pathetic. He
was under treatment for peptic ulcer in the campus and could not go to I.I.Ts
or other institutions for doing his PhD apparently
because of his indifferent
health. He had taken his M Tech from IIT Madras a few years earlier to
me. Naturally he was disappointed, but some of his friends told him that if he
files a case in the high court showing
that he is the senior and has to be promoted ahead of others, he is likely to
win. Poor guy thought this will be possible and he filed a case against the
Principal and all of us who were promoted telling that as per seniority, it is
his right to be promoted. By denying him promotion, his fundamental right to
equal opportunity was denied and so on. High court of Kerala accepted this to
file and sent notices to all of us.
In such cases, it was evident
that the court will intervene only if there is anything wrong in the selection
procedure by way of advertisement, formation of the selection committee etc.
Moreover, we all had received our promotion orders and assumed charge in the
higher post and the case was filed only after
we took charge. In a way, even if there was some substance in the case,
it was filed too late. Anyway, as it was the first court case against us, some
of us were taken aback. As per the advice from the Principal, we also went to
Ernakulam and filed an affidavit through an advocate as we were implicated in
the case. A few hundred rupees were spent from our pocket also for this
purpose. Someone in the campus had given
our colleague the wrong advice to file a case like this knowing fully that it
is not going to be of any use. There were always people who wanted to enjoy seeing the fight between others and this was a case
like that. Our colleague, being a simpleton, fell into the trap and approached
an advocate who had gone to the Supreme court once and gave a neat amount to
file this case as violation of fundamental rights. He was naturally
disappointed on not getting promotion, but the bystanders exploited his state
of mind in this direction.
Unfortunately, this case never came up for hearing for reasons not known to us
or the ‘supreme court’ advocate did not get additional fees. All of us who were
promoted were confirmed in our posts after two years on completion of probation
and the net result was, our colleague lost a few friends by implicating us.
Thus, on October 3rd
1983, after completing 14 years as lecturer, I was promoted to the post of
Assistant professor. In the pretty bad circumstances REC were in the late 70s, a decision to travel to
Delhi and stay there for 3 years and complete the PhD, proved beneficial. Of
course, in Kerala government and aided engineering colleges,
it was a routine thing to get promoted
as assistant professor for any one with M.Tech degree and 13 years’ service,
but in REC it was not so easy under the open competition and national selection
policy.
3
Comments
Post a Comment