The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by Gandhigram Rural Institute (a deemed to be university) Employees and Pensioners Association against a resolution passed by the Senate in 1989 providing for extension of the vice chancellor’s tenure by 180 days after the completion of three years.
A Division Bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice V.M. Velumani said: “We do not know what grievance the petitioner has about the resolution. Not a single ground is raised in the writ petition as to how the Senate resolution dated April 8, 1989 was illegal… Therefore, we do not think that the writ petition can be entertained.”
The judges also pointed out that the petitioner association had obtained a copy of the resolution under the Right to Information Act and then made a representation to the Centre claiming that successive officers of the university had cheated the Vice President (Chancellor of the university) and the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
In the present writ petition, the association had only sought a direction to consider their representation and had not challenged the validity of the resolution. It had also not explained as to how the resolution was illegal, the judges said.