MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) on a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to initiate criminal investigation into ‘the various scandals that are plaguing the university’.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi ordered notice to the university on the petition filed by M. Lionel Antony Raj of Madurai, who said the MKU was offering distance education programmes, apart from regular courses and research projects. Several complaints had been raised over the functioning of the distance education programme.
Between 2017-2019, a scandal broke out regarding conduct of examinations and several irregularities, including financial malpractice, unlawful collection of fees, tampering of names in admission register and award of degrees, were brought to light.
Though the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption was conducting a probe into the scandals, not much progress had been made. Even in 2020, similar irregularities in the conduct of examination had taken place, he said.
This was only the tip of the iceberg, the petitioner said and sought a direction to the authorities to initiate criminal investigation into the various scandals that had affected the university, in order to bring the administration back on the right path.
