The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction to reconstitute the Search Committee formed to appoint Vice-Chancellor for Madurai Kamaraj University.
Dismissing the petition moved by activist A. Narayanan, the First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice M. Sundar said, “In the midst of the selection process, we are not inclined to interfere merely because one of the members of the search committee resigned. The tenor of the letter sent by the person seems to suggest his working equation problems with the chairperson rather than anything substantive. In the aforesaid circumstances, the petition is dismissed.”
The petitioner wanted the court to quash the order constituting the Search Committee in view of the allegations of irregularities pending against the convener of the committee C. Murukadas.
According to the petitioner, originally the State Government, through an order dated April 6, 2015, constituted a Search Committee to recommend three names for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the MKU. Out of the three, the Governor would select one person as the Vice-Chancellor.
On December 31, 2015, one of the committee members, Mu. Ramaswamy raised allegations of irregularities in the functioning of Mr. Murukadas. But as there was no response from the university authorities, Mr. Ramaswamy resigned from the committee on February 11, 2016.
Subsequently, a Government Order was passed on December 20, 2016 reconstituting the Search Committee without removing Mr. Murukadas.
Assailing the action of the government in re-nominating the same person as the convenor, the petitioner wanted the court to quash the order.
