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UGC objects to Tamil Nadu forming panel without commission chief’s nominee
The commission, in its letter, said that the appointment of a vice-chancellor in violation of the higher-education regulator’s norms shall be “null and void” and can lead to legal complications.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to the Tamil Nadu chief secretary raising objections over the constitution of search-cum-selection committees for the appointment of vice-chancellors (VCs) to state universities without a nominee of the commission chairman, officials said on Wednesday.
The move comes after the Tamil Nadu government released a gazette last month to constitute a search committee to recommend a panel of three people for the selection of vice-chancellor for the University of Madras without a UGC chairperson nominee.
The commission, in its letter, said that the appointment of a vice-chancellor in violation of the higher-education regulator’s norms shall be “null and void” and can lead to legal complications.
UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said that the selection for the post of vice chancellor should be through proper identification by a panel of three to five people by a Search cum-Selection. “One member of the Search cum-Selection Committee shall be nominated by the chairman of the University Grants Commission for selection of vice chancellors of State, Private and Deemed to be Universities. Appointment of vice-chancellor of a university in violation of the UGC Regulations is not valid,” he said.
The commission also pointed out a Supreme Court judgment from last year in the case of the vice-chancellor at Sardar Patel University, Gujarat. The apex court had noted that the appointment of vice-chancellors cannot be made according to the applicable UGC regulations, even if the State Act concerned prescribes diluted eligibility criteria vis-à-vis the criteria prescribed by UGC regulations, a senior UGC official said.
Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi and the state’s DMK-led government have been at loggerheads about the appointments of vice-chancellors.
On September 6, the governor had announced the constitution of three search-cum-selection committees to appoint vice-chancellor’s to three universities including the University of Madras, Bharathiar University in Coimbatore and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University in Chennai. He had also introduced a fourth member in the committee by nominating a person on behalf of the UGC chairman.
However, on September 13, the state’s higher education department issued a notification for a search-cum-selection committee by excluding the nominee of the UGC chairman, which the governor termed an “act of impropriety” and demanded the state withdraw the notification.
