Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ruled that a postgraduate (PG) diploma cannot be treated as equivalent to a PG degree for promotion to the post of Assistant Professor under the Himachal Pradesh Medical Education Services Rules, 1999.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Sushil Kukreja observed that the rules clearly specify a “Postgraduate Degree or its equivalent qualification”, with three years of teaching experience after obtaining the PG degree. The judges clarified that this does not include experience gained after a PG diploma.
“If there was an intention to include experience after a postgraduate diploma, it would have been expressly mentioned in the rules,” the bench noted, adding that the phrase ‘after doing Post Graduation’ must be construed strictly as ‘after doing Post Graduation Degree’.
Petitioner’s Claim Rejected
The ruling came in response to a plea by a doctor who argued that his three years of teaching experience as a Senior Resident—gained after completing a PG diploma but before earning his MD degree—should count towards eligibility for promotion.
However, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) rejected his claim, recommending another candidate. The High Court upheld the DPC’s decision, ruling that the petitioner did not meet the essential qualification criteria under the 1999 Rules.
Court’s Observations
The bench pointed out that the Service Rules make no reference to a diploma for the post of Assistant Professor. Therefore, the court said, it cannot be interpreted that a PG diploma equals a PG degree for the purpose of promotion.
Citing Civil Appeal No. 4415 of 2011 (Manish Sharma’s case), the court noted that the Supreme Court had earlier directed the competent authority to decide the issue of equivalence based on the rules but had not ruled on the merits. No such decision equating diplomas and degrees had been made by the competent authority since then.
Final Verdict
Upholding the departmental decision, the HC concluded:
“The respondents and the Departmental Promotion Committee rightly held that the petitioner was not eligible for appointment as Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology due to lack of the essential qualification prescribed under the relevant rules.”
The judgment reinforces that only a postgraduate degree (MD/MS) — not a diploma — qualifies doctors for promotion to the Assistant Professor level in Himachal Pradesh’s medical education service.
