The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday ordered production of a resolution reportedly passed by the syndicate of Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University on March 27 for reducing the intake of students from 180 to 104 for various courses offered by its School of Excellence in Law due to absence of adequate infrastructure.
Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan gave the direction on a public interest litigation petition accusing N. Santhosh Kumar, the incumbent convenor of the university, of having reduced the intake by misleading the Syndicate with the intention of spoiling initiatives taken by former Vice-Chancellor P. Vanangamudi to admit more students.
Contesting the case, university’s counsel V. Meenakshisundaram told the court that it was naive to claim that the Syndicate had been misled by the convenor since it comprised eminent personalities, including a sitting judge of the High Court. “The decision was of the Syndicate, the highest decision making body of the university, not of the convenor,” he said.
When the judges asked why at all did the Syndicate decide to reduce the intake much to the disadvantage of students who preferred to study law, the counsel said it was because of unavailability of infrastructure to accommodate many students and the lack of funds to create the required infrastructure before the beginning of the academic year.
Wondering how could the mighty State cite lack of funds as a reason to reduce the intake of students in a government institution, the judges ordered production of the Syndicate resolution by next week. They also took note of the submission of petitioner’s counsel R. Alagumani that private universities in the State charged heavily for law courses.
