The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed against the induction of former IIT-Kanpur Director K. Anantha Padmanabhan in the search committee for recommending a panel of three names for the post of Vice-Chancellor of Anna University.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar rejected the case after being convinced with arguments advanced by Advocate General Vijay Narayan that there was no connection between Mr. Padmanabhan and the university which could disqualify him from being a member of the search committee.
P. Uchimakali, State secretary of Students Federation of India (SFI), had challenged the induction primarily on the ground that Mr. Padmanabhan had been serving as a Professor of Eminence in the university since November 2015, and hence, he could not be made a search committee member in view of a bar under the Anna University Act of 1978.
However, after producing original documents before the court, the Advocate General pointed out that Mr. Padmanabhan had resigned from the post of Professor of Eminence on April 13 and his resignation was accepted by the university on May 22. It was only thereafter that he was inducted in the search committee as the Syndicate’s nominee on June 16.
During the hearing in the case on Tuesday, he had expressed disappointment over the selection process being stalled through such litigations filed by “vested interests” and informed the court that former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, who had been included as Chancellor’s nominee in the committee, had decided to resign due to the case.
