The teachers' appointment process in Bihar Universities is set to witness a revival of the old system of hiring through the University Service Commission.

The education department is going to revive the old system and would do away with the existing method in which appointments were done through Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

State education minister Ashok Choudhary on Monday said: "The teachers' appointment in state universities will be carried out by the Universities Service Commission after its revival. The BPSC, which is carrying out the appointments, will no longer do it."

The minister, however, said the eight subjects for which the BPSC had conducted interviews and published results will not be affected with the new order coming in.

The BPSC, which was carrying out the appointments for the 3,465 teachers at the universities, was asked to stop the process midway.

Based on the BPSC appointment process, candidates for Maithili subject after clearing the BPSC interview, had even joined several universities. The results for English have been declared too.

Apart from the two subjects, the BPSC had also conducted interviews for six subjects.

The state government going for the revival of the Universities Service Commission is just like filling old wine in a new bottle. The Nitish Kumar government in 2007 had abolished the Universities Service Commission after nepotism charges were levelled against the commission in conducting recruitments at the state universities.

The commission, which was constituted in 1982, was carrying out appointment process till 2007.

University teachers are sceptical that the revival of the Universities Service Commission will again lead to corruption and nepotism.

V.S Dubey, a retired geology professor from Patna University, said: "The commission which had carried out appointment process of teachers at the state universities in 1992, 1996 and 2003, was accused of gross irregularities and nepotism during the recruitment process. It will again lead to corruption."

Satish Patel, a research scholar in Patna University, said: "The constitution of the state universities commission is not an easy task. First, the three parties within the grand alliance will fight among themselves for control over the universities commission."

Patel, who has applied for the assistant professor's post, said apart from leading to corruption, the recruitment process will get delayed if the government goes for the Universities Service Commission appointment process.