Petition by lecturer seeking assistance of lawyer dismissed

: Madras High court bench today dismissed a petition by a lecturer of Bharathidasan University, seeking assistance of a lawyer while attending an enquiry, conducted by an enquiry officer, who is a lawyer.
Justice S Vaidyanathan said petitioner K Jayaraman,who was appointed as lecturer in the educational technology department in 2001, was issued a charge memo on May 23 this year. The EO was appointed after his explanation to the charge memo was not satisfactory.
The petitioner submitted that the charges levelled against him were serious in nature and the equiry officer was a lawyer. Hence he should be assisted by a lawyer during the domestic enquiry.

The Judge said the presiding officer was not a legally trained man. But the witnesses are law graduates. This could not be the legal ground to seek assistance of the lawyer to defend himself during the enquiry, he said.