The Madras High Court today directed the Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission, to be personally present in the court for briefing its stand with regard to appointment of Vice-Chancellors to Universities.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a direction to quash advertisements dated May 31, 2015 and April 26, 2014 calling for applications for the post of appointment of Vice Chancellors for Universities in Tamil Nadu.
The petitioners, including A.Narayanan, Director of Change India, an NGO, contended that it would be impermissible for state universities or the state to adopt a different procedure in reference to selection of Vice-Chancellors, "contra and in violation of the UGC Regulations," in the light of a Supreme Court directive.
The petitioners said persons of the highest level of competence, integrity, moral and institutional commitment are to be appointed as Vice-Chancellors.
The petitioners, while referring to the advertisements in which the qualification is mentioned as Associate Professor for the Post of VC, submitted that authorities failed to consider that there is vital difference "between the qualifications of Professor "as contained in regulation 4.1.0 and Associate Professor as contained in Regulation 4.3.0 of UGC Regulations 2010."
The petitioners sought to quash the advertisements by the Universities for the post of Vice Chancellors and also to direct all state universities concerned to comply with the provisions of UGC Act, 1956 and its regulations 2010.
When the matter came up, the Chief Justice asked the counsel for UGC "what is your stand and what are you planning to do?"
The counsel said the search committee had no power to dilute the eligibility or qualification for candidates.
The bench then said "that is fine but what are you going to do? What do you propose to do? Are you going to issue any advisory at least for future?"
Then the bench directed the Joint Secretary of UGC to remain personally present in the court with all relevant records and listed the matter for February 22.
