Following the order of Uttarakhand High Court (HC), the Uttarakhand Medical Services Selection Board (UKMSSB) has suspended the process of recruitment of 138 assistant professors in the Government medical colleges of the state. The board has issued a notification in this regard in which it has stated that the selection process would remain suspended till further orders in view of HC ruling on the recruitment.

On the petition of one Dr Sashi Pal working on contract in the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) and others, HC had recently directed to keep on hold the recruitment drive.

The petitioner had contended that though their selection had been done by the UKMSSB following the recruitment norms the board had started a new process of recruitment instead of regularising their services. Ordering suspension of the recruitment drive, the court  had directed the state government to file its reply. The next date of the hearing of the case  is October 24. The board has now removed the recruitment advertisement from its official website.

To fill the large number of vacant positions of faculty members in the government medical colleges, UKMSSB had started a drive to appoint 138 assistant professors in 24 disciplines in September this year.

In Uttarakhand, there are three Government Medical Colleges-Government Doon Medical College, Medical College Haldwani and Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Medical College Srinagar. In absence of permanent appointments for the past many years, most of the faculty members in these medical colleges are working on contract.

In such a condition, these medical colleges are marred by absenteeism, frequent changes and other problems associated with contractual employees. The appointment of new permanent faculty members in these colleges was expected to bring stability in the teaching positions.

However, the open recruitment decision has not gone down well with the assistant professors working on contract in these medical colleges. Their contention was that they were selected after a proper process in which every criterion like reservation was followed and for more than two years, they had worked hard to ensure the medical colleges secured the mandatory permission from the Medical Council of India (MCI).

In the GDMC alone, there are about 30 such assistant professors services of whom would be terminated once  the permanent appointments are made.

These contractual faculty members had moved HC, resulting in the suspension of the recruitment drive.