Agartala, Feb. 27: Tripura High Court has annulled the list of 113 assistant professors selected by the Tripura Public Service Commission in violation of norms set by the University Grants Commission.

In their judgment yesterday, the division bench of the high court, headed by Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Gupta and Justice Swapan Chandra Das, not only annulled the list of appointees prepared by the commission, but also castigated the authorities for filing false affidavits.

The bench also issued specific guidelines for fresh interviews and process of appointments which the "TPSC must comply with".

Sources in the court said in April last year, the commission had invited applications for 150 posts of assistant professors in compliance with a decision of the state cabinet that the appointments would be based on the reservation formula of the state - 31 per cent for Scheduled Tribes and 17 per cent for Scheduled Castes.

But tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma had issued an instruction that of the 150 posts, altogether 62 would have to be set aside for appointment of Scheduled Tribe candidates in violation of existing norms.

The commission had accepted this and went ahead for the process of appointments, violating the UGC's guideline of subject-wise reservation. A notification of 113 candidates selected for the posts was issued by the commission in the first week of May last year. But the matter took a serious turn as at least four deprived candidates filed a writ petition challenging the appointments and role of the commission in completing the process on May 15 last year.

When the case came up for primary hearing on September 15 last year, the high court ordered a stay on the appointments and asked the commission to file affidavits in detail on how they had gone about the matter.

In the course of the hearing of the case, it was found that the commission had violated UGC norms, existing rules of reservation of the state government and many other irregularities.

From records furnished in the court by the commission, it became evident that irregularities had been committed by the TPSC.

While pronouncing the final judgment yesterday, the high court bench issued 14-point guidelines which the commission must follow in future to avoid "more serious action".

The reaction of the commission to the judgment was not available.