Malappuram: Kasaragod native R Ranjith fought against the odds to secure appointment as an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. But even as accolades pour in for Ranjith soon after his own touching social media post, reports have emerged that he lost out on an opportunity at Calicut University as the recruitment norms were allegedly flouted.
In January Ranjith had attended an interview for the post of assistant professor at the Economics department of Calicut University. He was fourth on the rank list for the recruitment to four vacancies.
But the University carried out the recruitments only to three vacancies and kept aside one post for the reserved category, and thus Ranjith was denied the opportunity. A petition given against this is now under the consideration of the Kerala High Court.
Ranjith lost out on the opportunity as the teachers’ recruitments to the Calicut University departments were reportedly made without mentioning the reservation order and filling the backlog vacancies. Given that there are two backlog vacancies for the backward communities in the Economics department to be filled, Ranjith, who is from the Scheduled Tribe, should have got an appointment this time.
Also, the UGC rule that the reservation list should be published at the time of issuing appointment notification was not compiled with. Instead after conducting the interview in January, the University decided on the reservation order for the recruitments to the economics department. Only after the rank list was published, it was informed that the fourth vacancy was reserved for Other Backward Classes.
However, the University is not ready to release the criteria for determining the reservation for the recruitment of teaching staff. Seeking the reservation roster, the syndicate members have approached the High Court but the University has not taken a favourable stance. With this, the allegations of flouting the reservation norms in teachers’ recruitment have strengthened.
Earlier too, complaints were raised against the recruitment interview in the economics department.
Ranjith, who is from Panathur in Kerala’s Kasaragod district, came to the limelight a few days ago after he posted a photo of his hut on social media. "I was born in this house. I grew up here, I live here. Let me say with a lot of happiness, an IIM professor has been born in this house," Ranjith captioned it. Soon, the post became viral on the internet and he was touted as a role model for students and youth.
