The Gujarat High Court, on Tuesday, ordered the state government to continue the service of ad hoc lecturers in the engineering and polytechnic colleges in the state.

Justice M R Shah announced the order on the petition by around 400 ad hoc lecturers whose appointment had come to an end on June 26.

The lecturers had approached the High Court with a petition that they should not be terminated until the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) did not fill the posts through proper recruitment examination.

Last Friday, Justice Shah had ordered status-quo on the appointments of the ad hoc lecturers.

Pramal Nanavaty, who represented 301 petitioner students in the court of Justice M R Shah, said: “The appointment of lecturers in various engineering and polytechnic colleges is generally done by the state government by holding an examination through GPSC. But the GPSC had conducted the examination only in 2005. So, there is a dearth of lecturers who can be appointed through the GPSC examination.”

He added: “To meet the requirement of lecturers, the colleges are opting for ad hoc appointments.”

According to figures provided by the state government in the court, there are around 1,600 posts of lecturers in the state colleges, which are being occupied by ad hoc lecturers.

Nanavaty added: “Today, the court asked GPSC to produce before it a schedule for the recruitment process of regular lecturers through an examination, on Wednesday when the matter will come up for further hearing.