If the administration of universities is allowed to be interfered with by the executive according to its whims and fancies, it will be tantamount to usurping the powers of authorities vested with such powers and will defeat the very object of statutes, the Madras High Court has said.
If at all, such power can be exercised only after making suitable amendments to the statutes by the legislature, observed Justice V. Dhanapalan while allowing a batch of writ petitions seeking to declare a G.O. of the Higher Education Department of December 13, 2006, which sought to amend the service conditions of the University of Madras employees, ultra vires the provisions of the University Act, particularly the provisions relating to regulation of service conditions.
The grievance of the petitioners, the Madras University Staff Association and others, was that their entire service conditions, including remuneration and classification of various services, were governed by ordinances and statutes made by the Syndicate under particular Acts.
The impugned G.O., which sought to bring uniformity in service conditions of the university employees with that of State government services, overlooking the existing statutes of the university, was uncalled for.
In its counter, the government submitted that it issued the order based on the Dr. S. Muthukrishnan Committee report and subsequent decisions, which could not be faulted with.
Mr. Justice Dhanapalan said there was no doubt that the legislature had enacted the statutes, namely the Acts of universities.
Universities, being body corporates having perpetual succession, had got a separate legal entity and, as such, the rules framed by the government would not be applicable, unless specifically adopted by the universities as per the provisions of the Acts by which they were constituted.
The present executive order, which took away the rights of the Syndicate of university where the Governor himself was the head, was totally unwarranted.
Under Art.162, the executive's power would extend to matters with respect to which the legislature of the State had power to make laws, but it should not be repugnant to the laws which already occupied the field.
