A day after Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said that the in-charge Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) was ‘unfit to hold the post’, the academician Jayakara S.M. received support from different quarters.
Many former Vice Chancellors pointed out that appointment of in-charge Vice Chancellor was the sole prerogative of the Governor who is the Chancellor of universities.
K.S. Ravindranath, former Vice Chancellor of RGUHS and eminent cardiologist, said that as per the rules, the State government had no role in appointment of an in-charge VC and the Governor alone could decide this.
Another former Vice Chancellor of RGUHS quoted the Act and said that the Governor had acted as per the rules, and there was no need for a controversy on this issue.
According to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Act 1994, when any temporary vacancy occurs in the office of the Vice Chancellor by reason of leave, illness or any other cause, the Chancellor can make arrangements for carrying on the duties of the Vice Chancellor as he may deem fit.
Dr. Jayakara was the principal of AECS College of Dental Sciences prior to being appointed as in-charge Vice-Chancellor of RGUHS.
Dr Sudhakar wants someone from government medical colleges or from the Medical Education Department to head the university.
