In a relief to 254 Assistant Professors belonging to various colleges in Tamil Nadu, the state's High Court on Tuesday, November 22, kept the order of their termination in abeyance. A November 17 order of a Single-judge Bench had terminated their appointment, citing irregularities.

The Assistant Professors are from the colleges run by the Pachaiyappa's Trust in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. A Bench of Justices Paresh Upadhyay and D Bharatha Chakravarthy, who heard the matter, granted the injunction while admitting the appeals preferred by the aggrieved Assistant Professors, as per a report by PTI.

The judges pointed out that the inquiry conducted by Justice Shanmugam Commission revealed that there were some irregularities in the award of weightage marks in respect of 150 Assistant Professors alone. "The single judge order declaring the appointments of all the 254 Assistant Professors as null and void, cannot be accepted. Hence, the operation of his order passed on November 17 is kept in abeyance till the passing of final orders on the appeals," the Bench said.

Two writ petitions from R Prema Latha and six others, who alleged irregularities in the appointments, were filed in the High Court. Then, Justice SM Subramaniam, on November 17, had directed the Pachaiyappa's Trust to terminate the services of the 254 Assistant Professors, as per PTI.