The Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside proceedings issued by Madurai Kamaraj University’s (MKU) Syndicate on June 14 nominating academician C. Thangamuthu as its representative in the three-member search panel constituted for shortlisting names for the post of Vice-Chancellor.
Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad set aside the nomination on the ground that the Syndicate had been convened in a hurried manner and the nomination made without issuing a notice of 14 days as required under Section 10(1) of the Madurai Kamaraj University Act, 1965.
Wondering why was such a haste exhibited in the case of Syndicate nominee alone when the nominee of the Senate had been proposed as per prescribed procedures, the judges directed the Higher Education Secretary and the MKU to redo the process of nominating the Syndicate representative.
Though the university had contended that the result of the exercise would not be different because Mr. Thangamuthu, former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, had been selected unanimously by all 12 members of the Syndicate, the judges said in any case the legal procedures must be followed.
They also refused to accept the argument that the first Division Bench of the High Court, led by its former Chief Justice Indira Banerjee (now a Supreme Court judge), had directed the university to complete the process of selection of VC within two months and therefore the Syndicate nominee had to be named quickly.
A. Mahalingam, a resident of Chennai and member of Save MKU forum, had filed the present writ petition challenging the inclusion of Syndicate’s nominee in the search panel.
He had contended that a meeting of the Syndicate was convened hastily on June 14, a public holiday, without giving sufficient time to the members to deliberate and Mr. Thangamuthu was nominated by the Syndicate at the instance of the then Higher Education Secretary.