The Madras High Court has directed the Higher Education Secretary to consider promoting an associate professor for the post of Director of College Education.
The direction by Justice N. Anand Venkatesh on December 13 follows a writ by petition filed by G. Geetha, principal of Government Arts College in Tiruvarur, seeking promotion as the Director of College Education. She said the norm was that a panel for promotion should be constituted and the final candidate decided.
The government had taken steps to prepare a panel in June and she had submitted her self-assessment report too. But the process was kept in abeyance and a junior professor, who was the third respondent in the case, was given full additional charge. The judge directed the Higher Education Secretary Mangat Ram Sharma, the first respondent in the petition, “to pass appropriate order within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this order.”
An official of the Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers Association said it had been demanding that the norms be followed in the appointments in the DCE office. One of the conditions is that the candidate should be able to complete at least one year as the DCE.
“For the past five years appointments to the DCE and regional joint directors have been in violation of norms. Two professors sought legal recourse but by the time they got a court order they were close to retirement and could not benefit. The current DCE was 9th in the panel then,” he said.
Jothi Venkateswaran, who held the post of joint director (personnel), was given additional charge of the DCE by Mr. Sharma.
