The Save Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) Coalition has raised concern over P.P. Chellathurai’s continued stay at the Vice-Chancellor’s bungalow on the campus despite the Madras High Court setting aside his appointment as VC of MKU.
Speaking to the media here on Thursday, A. Srinivasan, president of the coalition, said that it was both morally and legally untenable for Mr. Chellathurai to stay at the bungalow with the Supreme Court also refusing to grant interim stay of the Madras High Court’s order.
R. Murali, secretary, said, “We are hearing from reliable sources in MKU that top officials in the university are spending a lot of time at the bungalow. Importantly, many files are apparently being signed by him in a backdated manner. We are concerned that many official records are being manipulated.”
Appealing to the Governor’s office and the State government to formally relieve Mr. Chellathurai from VC’s post and ask him to vacate the bungalow, the coalition said that the steps for selection of a new VC must be expedited. The coalition said that it would soon present a memorandum to the Governor’s office and the Higher Education department on the irregularities during the past one year tenure of Mr. Chellathurai.
“Appointments have been made in violation of the university statute and regulations. New posts like Coordinator for University-Industry Collaboration have been created without due process. We have evidence to show that there are issues in the appointment of almost all senior officials, including Registrar, Controller of Examinations, Additional CoE and Director of Academic Staff College,” Mr. Murali claimed.
When contacted, MKU Registrar V. Chinniah denied the allegations that Mr. Chellathurai was seeing files at his bungalow after the High Court’s judgement. “This is a completely baseless allegation. He is not involved in the administration in anyway,” he said. “Regarding his stay at the bungalow, I am not the person to decide. It must be decided by the Governor’s office or Higher Education department,” he added.
Meanwhile, sources in the university said that Mr. Chellathurai had expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would grant an interim stay when his appeal came up for hearing in the third week of July.
