Chandigarh, July 10 -- A larger bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court will decide whether a state government can prescribe qualifications higher than those laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The reference made by justice HS Brar also includes whether the state government is legally bound to accept the UGC (minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and other measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education) Regulations, 2018, in their entirety. The reference was made while hearing an appeal around the process adopted by the Haryana government in the recruitment of assistant professors in Chemistry, in which a challenge was made to the condition of conducting a screening test of candidates. The court said that conducting a screening test or subject knowledge test does not amount to a violation of the UGC regulations. "The state government is empowered to prescribe higher, more rigorous qualifications than those provided in the UGC regulations, so long as the criteria provided in the latter are not diluted," it observed. However, as a coordinate bench had earlier held that recruitment in higher educational institutions must be as per the UGC framework, it referred the matter to the chief justice to constitute a larger bench in view of conflicting judicial verdicts. HTC...