The Madras high court on Wednesday granted an interim stay for a specific provision of a legislation that enables the Tamil Nadu government to appoint vice-chancellors to state-run varsities without the governor's role.
The Universities Amendment Act transferred the powers of appointing vice-chancellors to state-run universities from the governor to the government. It is among several bills which were deemed to have been granted assent by the top court in a case brought by the state against Governor RN Ravi's inordinate delay in acting on bills passed for the second time by the legislature.
A division bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshmi Narayanan granted the stay amid strong opposition by the ruling DMK to take up the case.
No urgency, says TN govt
According to LiveLaw, the state informed the bench that a petition is pending in the top court, urging the case to be heard with related disputes being heard by the apex court.
Senior Advocate P Wilson, appearing for the government, submitted that there was no urgency in hearing the plea or granting a stay as the apex court would hear its plea in the next couple of days. He urged the high court to take up the plea after the top court decided on the transfer petition.
{{/usCountry}}Senior Advocate P Wilson, appearing for the government, submitted that there was no urgency in hearing the plea or granting a stay as the apex court would hear its plea in the next couple of days. He urged the high court to take up the plea after the top court decided on the transfer petition.
{{/usCountry}}The petitioner is an advocate and also a functionary of the BJP sought a stay on the amendments which were notified in the gazette without the governor's assent following the Supreme Court's verdict.
Senior Advocate Dama Sheshadri Naidu, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the amendments were contrary to the central law, i.e UGC regulations, as it takes away the role of the chancellor, the governor, to appoint vice-chancellors from recommendations given by the search committee constituted for the purpose.
The plea also cited a provision in the constitution to argue that in the event of a conflict between a central and state law, the former prevails, and thus the amendments passed by the state government were unconstitutional, the report said.