The Madras High Court on Friday made Higher Education Secretary Sunil Paliwal appear in person though he initially attempted to avoid appearance by filing an affidavit listing out the steps being taken to implement orders passed by the court last year.
Justice N. Kirubakaran made sure that the IAS officer complied with the court order summoning the official for explaining the delay in implementing last year’s order with respect to appointment of a group of B.Ed graduates as government schoolteachers.
After finding that the officer was not present in court at 2.15 p.m. and only an affidavit had been filed, the judge insisted that he should appear by 4 p.m., and the officer complied with the direction. “We do not gain any pleasure in summoning officials but we are forced to do so because of non-compliance of court orders,” the judge told Mr. Paliwal who, in turn, replied that “as officers of the government and citizens of the country, it is our bounden duty to assist the court. Thanks for providing me an opportunity to come to the court.”
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Later, the secretary went on to explain that he had a limited role in the case. He conceded that a Government Order issued on January 5, 2016, refusing to consider B.Ed degrees issued by Vinayaka Mission University equivalent to the degrees offered by the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University (TNTEU) was erroneous and it should be withdrawn.
When Vinayaka Mission University had been recognised by the National Council for Teacher Education and had also been elevated to the status of a deemed university by the University Grants Commission, there was no need to doubt whether the degrees offered by it were equivalent to those offered by the TNTEU.
He added that a process had been initiated to amend the G.O. and requested the court to grant some time. After recording his submissions, the judge ordered that appointment orders should be issued to the candidates, who had approached the court, by Thursday since their cases were covered by judicial orders passed by the court last year and do not depend upon the G.O.