According to sources, the University Grants Commission (UGC) objected in a letter to the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu to the formation of search and selection committees without the commission chairperson’s nominee for vice chancellor of state universities.
The UGC has issued a warning that the appointment of a vice-chancellor in violation of the higher-education regulator’s norms shall be “null and void” and can result in legal complications, citing a notification dated September 13 in the Tamil Nadu government gazette to establish a search committee to recommend a panel of three persons for the selection of the vice-chancellor for the University of Madras.
“The UGC has pointed out a Supreme Court judgment from last year, referring to the appointment of the vice-chancellor at Sardar Patel University, Gujarat. The Supreme Court had noted that the appointment of vice-chancellors cannot be made dehors the applicable UGC regulations, even if the State Act concerned prescribes diluted eligibility criteria vis-à-vis the criteria prescribed by UGC regulations,” a source said.
RN Ravi, the governor of Tamil Nadu, and the DMK-led government of the state have been at odds about who should be named vice chancellor.
The governor announced on September 6 the formation of three search-cum-selection committees to designate vice-chancellors to three institutions: the University of Madras, Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University in Chennai. This is when the current problem started.
He also introduced a fourth committee member by making a nomination on the chairman of the UGC’s behalf.
The governor referred to the state’s September 13 announcement of a search and selection committee that excluded the UGC chairman’s nomination as a “act of impropriety” and asked that the state withdraw the notification.
The University of Madras has been without a vice-chancellor for four months, and Bharathiar University and Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University have been without a vice-chancellor for nine months.
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Source: The Indian Express
