The Madras High Court has dismissed a plea moved in 2013 assailing the appointment of Bhaskar Ramamurthi as Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) in November 2011.
The issue pertains to a plea moved by E. Muralidharan, an alumnus of the institution, alleging that the procedures laid down by law for the appointment of the Director were not followed. He said the reservation policy was not followed in letter and spirit in the institution.
Refusing to concur with his submissions, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan said no fault could be found in the procedures followed in the appointment of Mr. Bhaskar. The judge, however, said: “At the same time, this court is of the considered view that insofar as short listing candidates are concerned, more transparency should be in place.” As to the allegation on implementation of reservation policy, it was submitted on behalf of the IIT-M that in IITs, there was a flexi-cadre system by which, reservation was based on the total number of posts alone.
Justice Sathyanarayanan pointed out a 1990 Supreme Court judgment, which had observed that reservation had to be made post-/grade-wise and not based on the total number of posts alone. The judgment said mere announcement of a number of reserved posts was no better than inviting applications for the post without mentioning the subject. “The institution shall issue appropriate guidelines/ instructions in the matter of reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes in selection and appointment of posts in IITs,” he added.
