Lucknow, Oct. 31 -- Amid the wait for a new vice chancellor, Lucknow University teachers have demanded that the new appointee should have at least 10 years' experience as professor. Lucknow University Teachers' Association (LUTA) vice-president Arshad Ali Jafri raised the demand in a letter to chancellor Anandiben Patel. About three months ago, the then LU vice-chancellor Prof Alok Kumar Rai had quit during his second term to join as the director of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Jafri wrote that the Supreme Court had ruled in the 'Gambhirdan K Gadhvi vs The State of Gujarat' case on March 3, 2022 that since education is on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, a central law (in this case UGC regulations) will prevail over a state law in case of any conflict. "The UGC's 2018 Regulations clearly state that for vice chancellorship, the eligibility requires a candidate to have 10 years of experience as a professor. Later, the Gujarat high court ruled that serving vice chancellorship was not counted as the experience of a professor. This makes it clear that any person who has not completed the stipulated eligibility of 10 years as professor does not qualify to become a vice-chancellor of any university in India, whether Central or State university," the letter added. "The university should not be selective in terms of following UGC norms, instead all guidelines should be followed religiously. Anyway, Lucknow University is the face of the state and if it follows the norms strictly it will set a good example in front of others. The previous term of the vice-chancellor has been damaging, with him coming with a professorship of less than 10 years," Jafri said. Another faculty member Vineet Verma said that UGC regulations should be followed. "As general secretary of LUTA, I had written to governor Anandiben Patel in 2019 that the UGC norm should be implemented in the state. The letter was also forwarded to the government but it was not implemented. The Supreme Court has also said that vice-chancellorship cannot be accepted as professorship and such people should not be considered for the post as it is causing dilution in academic institutions," said Verma. Another professor, on condition of anonymity, said that the search committee is responsible for ensuring adherence to the criterion of 10 years of professorship when looking for a suitable candidate for the vice-chancellor's post. "Unfortunately in UP, the search committee's standpoint has not been checked," the faculty member said....