Karnataka High Court stays proceedings against 14 teachers of Visvesvaraya Technological University

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has stayed the proceedings, including the show-cause notices, against 14 teachers of the Post-graduate Centre of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Mysuru, subsequent to the appointment of an one-man commission to look into alleged irregularities in appointment of teachers during 2013-14.

Justice L Narayanaswamy stayed all further proceedings and issued notice to the commission headed by retired district judge Ajit N Solapurkar and the VTU.

This came after the court heard a petition filed by S N Thimma Raju, professor of Department of Computer Application, and 13 other teachers serving in various departments of the university in Mysuru.
The petitioners have challenged the resolution dated March 19, 2018, passed by the executive council of the VTU to allow the university to appoint a one-man commission, and take action against those appointed by ignoring the requisite qualification.

According to the petition, the show-cause notices were issued to the petitioners to appear before the commission on September 24 in connection with the alleged irregularities in appointments.The petitioners contended that they have already submitted their response on the issue and clarified that there were no allegations against them.

They further contended that the commission of inquiry was appointed for the third time. It was appointed despite knowing that there is no provision in law to appoint multiple commissions of enquiry.Earlier, the government had formed a fact-finding committee, headed by Justice K N Keshavanarayana, to look into the appointment of 168 teaching staffers, the petitioners claimed.