In a shocking revelation, two members of a search committee that recommended three names to the Governor for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University, filed individual affidavits before the Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday, claiming that they were forced by professor C. Murukadas, convenor of the panel, to include the name of incumbent Vice-Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai. One of the members, Harish L. Metha, said that his objection to Mr. Chellathurai’s candidature, on the grounds that he lacked requisite experience and faced a criminal case, was ignored.
Significantly, last year, Mu Ramasamy, a member of the previous search committee for the same university, had resigned, levelling charges of bias against Mr. Murukadas.
Objections ignored
In his counter affidavit to a writ petition challenging the appointment of Mr. Chellathurai, Mr. Metha said that the convenor forced the members to include Mr. Chellathurai’s name in the list of three recommendations by claiming that he was the “government’s choice.” Mr. Metha said that he had raised an objection since Mr. Chellathurai did not possess the minimum qualification of having served as a professor for 10 years, as per the University Grants Commission’s regulations. Besides, Mr. Chellathurai had been arrayed as one of the accused in a criminal case relating to a brutal attack on a professor of the same universityin May 2014.
According to him, the search committee had decided to include a column in the application form to make it mandatory for every candidate to declare that no criminal case was pending against them. “But to my great shock and surprise, the convener has, with a mala fide intention, removed the column [from the application form] to include his own candidate in the panel,” Mr. Metha alleged.
A similar counter affidavit was filed by another member of the committee. After perusing them, a Division Bench of justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan adjourned further hearing on the writ petition to August 18.
M. Lionel Antony Raj, a former student of the university, had filed the petition seeking a writ of quo warranto, directing the Vice-Chancellor to show cause under what authority he was holding the office. He also sought to quash the records related to the appointment.
The petitioner had alleged that Mr. Chellathurai had not fulfilled the requirement of being a professor for a minimum of 10 years, and that his tenure as the director of the Department of Youth Welfare could not be construed as an academic assignment, though his request to be re-designated as a professor was accepted by the Academic Council.
