Chandigarh, May 13 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the recruitment process of 613 posts of assistant professors (English) in Haryana. The bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya also quashed the advertisement put out by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) issued in 2024 and ordered that fresh advertisement be issued. The petitioners had sought quashing of the advertisement alleging that the HPSC diluted mandatory University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and introduced its own rules for the selection process. The criteria for shortlisting and selection was framed by the commission on the basis of the government memorandum, which was not as per 2018 regulations notified by UGC, they had argued. The petitions were from the candidates who had applied for the posts and cleared the screening test but failed to qualify the subject knowledge test conducted on August 17, 2025. They had challenged the entire recruitment process as being contrary to the UGC regulations. "The process adopted by the commission, as set out in the advertisement, is that the candidates are to be selected based upon a scheme/pattern of examination after a screening test for shortlisting, followed by subject knowledge test and interview. The final merit list is to be drawn based upon the marks obtained by the candidates in the test as well as interview," "This process is not in line with 2018 regulations, which require the candidates to be shortlisted as per the academic score (based upon performance in graduation, post-graduation, MPhil, PhD, NET, research publications, teaching experience, and academic awards)," the bench observed. The bench further added that the 2018 regulations are binding in nature "requiring their adoption in to - without any change, addition or deletion - so far as laying down the qualifications and the selection procedure, including that of shortlisting, is concerned" by the universities and states. The UGC Regulations derive statutory force from entry 66 of list 1 of the seventh schedule of the Constitution and are binding in matters concerning standards of higher education. Since education falls in the concurrent list, central legislation would prevail over inconsistent state provisions under Article 254 of the Constitution, it added. The bench declared impugned memorandum unlawful and set aside the same to the extent it violated 2018 regulations notified by UGC and ordered fresh recruitment by the Haryana government....