• Appointment at lower level

Hi !
Facts about my case :

1. The advertisement for various Faculty position in various departments of Delhi University was published on 5.5.2009.
Positions were : Professor , Associate Professor  & Assistant Professor
Qualifications advertised for these positions were :
Professor : Ph.D + 10 years teaching or research experience
Associate Professor : Ph.D. + 5 years teaching or research experience
Assistant Professor : M.Sc. + NET
2. I Applied on 3rd June 2009 for the post of Associate Professor. At the time of application submission, I was having 8 years of teaching and 9 months of research experience.
3. I got the interview letter for the post of Associate Professor and was interviewed for the same on 24th Nov. 2009. Total candidates interviewed by the Selection committee with me on that day ~ 6.
4. On that day, first the selection committee meeting for Professors held, then the selection committee meeting for Associate Professors held and finally the selection committee meeting for Assistant Professors was held.  
5. Selection committee for Associate Professor, selected only me but recommended as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000.

6. After getting the appointment letter, I tried to clarify the situation with the then VC of Delhi University. He regretted his decision but pursued me to join DU as under the 6th Pay commission, Assistant Professor with AGP 8000, on completion of 3 years of service was to be promoted as Associate Professor in Career Advancement Scheme. He convinced me that if not now, I would be made Associate Professor after 3-years. Also he offered me an in-Campus accommodation on joining as a compensation for his mistake. 
 I gave a serious thought on his arguments due to the following reasons :
(a) At that time I was already working at the same level, i.e. as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000 in Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, a Deemed University under UGC, so I was not losing anything financially.
(b) I was getting the change of place from Pilani to Delhi which was a great advantage for me from my research point of view.
(c) I was getting a good in-Campus accommodation at DU. Getting accommodation in Delhi in General and in-Campus accommodation in DU is very difficult.
So due to all these reasons, I decided to accept the offer and join as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000.
However things changed after 3-years. With me, the selection committee for Assistant Professors, had also recommended 9 people as assistant Professor with AGP 7000/8000. So once we all joined, some of our senior colleague approached UGC and argued that Assistant Professors can only be appointed with AGP 6000 under direct recruitment and therefore Appointment of AP with AGP 7000/8000 was wrong. UGC acted upon and sent a letter to DU for our reversal to AGP 6000. The DU without looking at the cases individually, decided to downgrade all of us to AGP 6000. So after 3 years the DU downgraded me too to AGP 6000.
(On this issue I am of the opinion that the University was right in demoting those who actually had applied for Assistant Professor and selected by the Selection Committee for Assistant Professor but given higher AGP of 7000 & 8000. BUT not in my case who got selected by a different selection committee and had given me Assistant Professor with AGP 8000 looking at my vast teaching and research experience.) 
7. Here I wish to clarify that under the 5th pay commission, the designations were Lecturer (Qualification: M.Sc. +NET), Sr. Lecturer (Promotion post), Reader (Qualification: Ph.D. +5 years teaching or research experience) and Professor (Qualification: Ph.D. + 10 years teaching or research experience)
while under 6th Pay Commission, the designations are Assistant Professor -I (AGP 6000), Assistant Professor -II (AGP 7000), Assistant Professor -III (AGP 8000), Associate Professor (AGP 9000), Professor (AGP 10000) and Sr. Professor (AGP 12000). The conversion formula from 5th Pay to 6th Pay commission is :
Lecturer --to --Assistant Professor-I, Sr. Lecturer --to--Assistant Professor-II, Reader (with less than 3 years of experience) --to-- Assistant Professor III, Professor, Reader (with more than 3 years of experience) --to-- Associate Professor) and Professor --to-- Professor.
the 6th Pay commission was officially announced on 31st Dec. 2008 in which designations decided but details about minimum qualifications for direct appointment at Associate Professor level (now Ph.D. + 8 years of teaching/research experience) appeared in the full report on 30th June 2010. Since our selection was in the transition period (in 2009 -10) between the 5th Pay and the 6th pay commission where there was ambiguity about the minimum qualifications for Associate Professor (Clear from University advertisement also where the designation Associate Professor was taken from the 6th Pay commission but qualifications (Ph.D. + 5 years experience) taken from the 5th Pay commission), so I presumed that the University played safe in my case and appointed me as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000, which was equivalent to Reader position under 5th Pay commission.  At the time of appointment I was having Ph.D + 8 Years of teaching and 9 Months of Research experience.
After my downgrade (in March 2013) I approached the University, the UGC, then MHRD through representations either alone or collectively, but got no response from them. 
ThenI tried for the restoration of the AGP 8000 under CAS on the basis of my past service (8 year 6 months teaching + 9 months of research experience) before joining the Delhi university. 
For that I showed them my two teaching experience certificate : one of 7 years & 7 moths as assistant Professor with AGP 6000 (though I was supposed to get promoted to AGP 7000 but CAS interviews were not held and I resigned) and other of 10 months as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000 from BITS Pilani.
As for placement to AGP 8000 under CAS, the person has to serve, 4 years in AGP 6000 & 5 years in AGP 7000, (Total 9 years of service), so I argued that you take 7 months from my service at the DU and placed me at AGP 8000 after 7 months of my service at the DU if not at the time of joining.

On my such efforts, the University gave me benefit of 4 years only and recently put me at AGP 7000 on the date of joining. My fight is still on.  
So now my questions are :
(a) Though I know that I can not fight my case for Associate Professor, But can I fight my case for appointment as Assistant Professor with AGP 8000 and restoration of it ? If yes then how strong will the case be ?
(b) If they have considered my 4 years of past service, can I move to court for counting of my other years of service ? How good the case will be ?
Please reply bsoon.

Thanks.

Kumar