The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to explain by Friday as to why the reappointment of former vice-chancellors of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, to the post for a second term, should not be considered as a separate category without clubbing them with those applying for the first time.
Justices S. Vaidyanathan and P.T. Asha posed the question during the hearing of a writ appeal preferred by acclaimed orthopaedic surgeon and former vice-chancellor Mayilvahanan Natarajan. The appeal was against a single judge’s order closing his writ petition after recording the submission of the State that his application shall be considered along with 40 others.
Assailing the submission, senior counsel Hema Sampath, representing the appellant, contended that a former vice-chancellor of the university that manages more than 500 medical institutions across the State, could not be equated with a principal or vice-principal of a single medical college who had applied for the post for the first time.
“He does not have to go through the mill once again. He is entitled for a second term,” the senior counsel said and referred to Section 10(3) of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University Act of 1987 which states that a vice-chancellor shall be appointed for three years and would be eligible for re-appointment for a further period of three years.
Though the appellant’s first tenure was between 2009 and 2012, he chose to apply for the second term only now. Further, there was no age bar for him since he was only 64 at present and an amendment made to the university Act in December 2012 had increased the age limit for holding the post from 65 to 70.
Prima facie in agreement with her submissions, the judges wanted to know why those falling under Section 10(3) should not be considered as a separate category.
