Court restrains Tamil University V-C from taking policy decisions

The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained G. Balasubramanian, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University in Thanjavur, from taking policy decisions till Thursday, since his appointment itself had been challenged on the ground that he did not possess the requisite qualifications for the post.

Justice R. Mahadevan passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by M. Ganesan, another contender to the post. The judge adjourned the hearing on the petition to Thursday at the request fro the counsel for the vice-chancellor but ordered that he should not take any policy decision till then.

Arguing the case on behalf of the petitioner, his counsel G. Balan Haridas claimed that Mr. Balasubramanian had failed to prove conclusively that he had presented no less than two papers at an international-level academic or research event and that he possessed experience of having conducted not less than one such academic or research event.

‘Book not available’

He further contended that two books ‘Reflections on Applied Linguistics (2018)’ and ‘Mozhiyil Oppu Nokku (2018)’ reportedly authored by Mr. Balasubramanian, were neither available in Dravidian University at Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh, where he had served as a Rector before his appointment, nor in the open market.

“I understand that just to meet the eligibility criteria, the two books appear to have been created. That is the reason why the date of publication of the two books has not been furnished and the books were not available in the open market,” the counsel contended and urged the court to quash the VC’s appointment order.

Since the petitioner was one of the three candidates, who had been shortlisted by the search committee and recommended for an interaction with the Governor, the counsel urged the court to direct the government to appoint Mr. Ganesan as the Vice-Chancellor of the university because he had all the qualifications required for the post.