The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction restraining the Vice-Chancellor of the Madras University from appointing university Registrar. However, the court made it clear that the interim order would not be an impediment for the university Syndicate to appoint the Registrar by following the procedure in the university statutes.
Justice S. Nagamuthu passed the order on a writ petition by a professor seeking a direction to the Vice-Chancellor to appoint the Registrar in conformity with the Madras University Act.
In the petition, filed through counsel N. Mohideen Basha, the petitioner, P. David Jawahar, a Professor in Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, submitted that the Madras University issued a notification on May 6 this year inviting applications for the posts of Registrar, Professor-cum-Director, Institute of Distance Education, Director, Academic Staff College, Dean, College Development Council and NSS Programme Coordinator.
He had applied for the Registrar’s post as he possessed the required qualifications. He said a scrutiny committee of three members was appointed by the Vice-Chancellor for short-listing candidates for the Registrar’s post. The committee was neither ratified nor approved by the Syndicate. The petitioner said despite his rich experience, he was not even short-listed.
The petitioner said the name of a former Registrar-in-charge was among the 18 short-listed. He had been expelled from the post after his alleged involvement in an examination scandal. The Vice-Chancellor’s term is to come to an end in 45 days. Hence, he could not appoint the Registrar now, when he himself was close to superannuation. The scrutiny committee had scrutinised the applications of candidates without the requisite quorum.
The court posted the matter for September 18.
