Tamil Nadu governor seeks report from Bharathiar University on Madras High Court summons

Based on that, the HC had prohibited the university authorities from running study centres outside Tamil Nadu.

Published: 07th December 2018 04:10 AM |

By S Mannar Mannan

Express News Service

COIMBATORE: After the Madras High Court summoned Higher Education secretary Mangat Ram Sharma, Bharathiar University registrar (in charge) B Vanitha and eight other syndicate members in a contempt of court proceedings, Governor-Chancellor Banwarilal Purohit has sought a report from the university. When a case filed by Association of Self Financing Arts, Science and Management Colleges came up for hearing at the Madras HC on December 8, last year, Bharathiar University Registrar (in charge) filed an affidavit stating that it will not operate distance education study centres and will not grant affiliation and recognition relating to distance education to be conducted outside Tamil Nadu from 2018-19 academic year.


Based on that, the HC had prohibited the university authorities from running study centres outside Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the university —after a meeting in Chennai on November 28 — passed a resolution allowing study centres to function for 2018-19 academic year. Challenging this move, private colleges association filed a contempt petition in the HC. When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, Justice N Kirubakaran who stayed the operation of the university’s recent resolution asked, ‘Are the court orders so ineffective to be violated or are they paper orders to be ignored?”

He also summoned Higher Education secretary Mangat Ram Sharma, who was also the convenor of University’s V-C committee, registrar (in charge) B Vanitha and syndicate members who approved the resolution to appear in court on January 7. Following the Madras High Court’s strong observation, Governor Banwarilal Purohit sought a report from the university. As instructed, a history of the decision has been sent to the governor’s office, said Vanitha.

Association of University Teachers (AUT) former general secretary C Pichandy pointed out that the Bharathiar University did not have any right to run distance education courses under franchise mode; not only outside Tamil Nadu but within too. UGC secretary Rajnish Jain in a letter to the then Higher Education secretary Sunil Paliwal (dated June 20) had said that a UGC circular (dated August 9, 2001) had asked all universities to stop franchising their degree education through private agencies or establishments with immediate effect. He also mentioned erstwhile Distance Education Council notification dated January 31, 2012, which also prohibited franchising of study centres by any institution or university.

Retired Tamil Nadu doctor robbed of Rs 5 lakh at gunpoint

A gang of masked criminals struck the house of a retired government doctor in Melur on Thursday and robbed `5 lakh and a mobile phone at gunpoint.

Published: 07th December 2018 04:13 AM 

By Express News Service

MADURAI: A gang of masked criminals struck the house of a retired government doctor in Melur on Thursday and robbed `5 lakh and a mobile phone at gunpoint. The house belonged one Baskaran, a retired government doctor from Melur.


The gang of six entered the house when Baskaran went for a walk on Thursday morning. The gang took the watchman hostage and gained entry. Once inside, the gang threatened to kill the watchman and obtained keys. They tied up the doctor’s wife, maid and the watchman. They were rescued by the neighbours.

‘Temporary qualification approval’ of Bharathiar University flayed

The Bharathiar University seems to be moving from one controversy to another.

Published: 08th December 2018 05:32 AM |


Bharathiar University (File | EPS)

By Express News Service

COIMBATORE : The Bharathiar University seems to be moving from one controversy to another. Recently, the Madras HC summoned its officials, as well as Higher Education Secretary Mangat Ram Sharma, over the decision to allow franchise centres to offer distance education programmes for one more year. Now, another of its decisions has been pointed out to be a violation of UGC regulations and orders of the HC and the Supreme Court.

The latter is a decision of its syndicate to give ‘temporary qualification approval’ for three years to teachers of affiliated colleges who do not possess the qualifications specified by UGC.On October 10, the syndicate favourably considered a resolution that the earlier practice of granting conditional qualification to such teachers be continued. Its justification was that the teachers and their institutions would face a lot of difficulties if this is not allowed.

This, according to Association of University Teachers vice president N Pasupathy, is a serious violation of UGC regulations and orders of the Madras HC and the SC. Also, this practice of giving conditional or temporary approval to unqualified teachers does not exist in any State university in Tamil Nadu, except Bharathiar University.

Why should the university approve, conditionally or temporarily, unqualified teachers recruited by private colleges when there are hundreds of eligible candidates who apply for teachers’ posts, he asked. Pasupathy appealed to Governor Chancellor Banwarilal Purohit to correct this gross violation before it attracts contempt petitions.


“For a long time, the AUT has been pointing out the grave and gross violations of rules by the Bharathiar Varsity School of Distance Education. The distance education programme was plagued by corrupt middlemen with connivance of successive vice-chancellors. The AUT’s untiring efforts, along with UGC regulations, ended this menace,” he said.

Lightning speed

Pasupathy also found intriguing the ‘lightning speed’ with which the university issued a directive to the franchise centres to send the lists of students they have admitted for further processing. This was done even before the minutes of the syndicate meeting which took the decision to use their services for another year were approved. After a syndicate meeting, the minutes are sent to all members for their approval, which is obtained within about 15 days

Breather for private education institutes in Tamil Nadu
The Madras High Court on Friday granted an interim stay to a recent amendment that imposed property tax on private educational institutions.

Published: 08th December 2018 05:43 AM |

Madras HC building (Photo | EPS)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday granted an interim stay to a recent amendment that imposed property tax on private educational institutions. The division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, were hearing a petition by the All India Private Educational Institutions Association that challenged the amendment made to the municipal laws in January.


The bench granted interim stay and directed the court registry to club the petition along with similar petitions pending in the high court over the same matter. The private schools contended that imposing property tax on private educational institutions was illegal since they were only offering a right that is guaranteed in the Constitution.

“In a common level playing field, there cannot be any discrimination between government schools and private schools, as the ultimate goal of the Constitution is free and fair education,” argued E Vijay Anand, counsel of the private schools association. The association also argued that education was a “charitable occupation”, and the private schools were run with “non-profit” purpose.

Madras High Court orders Centre to disburse funds for SC/ST students

Though the Department of Finance, Government of India, is not a party to this litigation, allocation of funds have to be made as per

Published: 09th December 2018 04:19 AM


Madras High Court (File photo | EPS)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI : The High Court, in a 157-page order, directed the Central Department of Finance to allocate funds of arrears of Rs 822.91 crore, up to 2016-17, enabling the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, to disburse the fund meant for SC, ST Students under the Post-Matric Scholarship, within two months.

The PIL plea was filed by one D Ashok Kumar, seeking directions to the authorities of the State and Centre, to continue to support Post Matric Scholarship to students hailing from SC/ST communities, to pursue their higher education, as there has been paucity of funds, due to non-release of funds by the Government of India, as a result of which, Government of Tamil Nadu, decided to restrict the benefits of the scheme.

The Division Bench, comprising Justice S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, which heard the petition, sought for a direction to the Director, Social Justice and Empowerment, Union of India, New Delhi, to immediately release the funds of Rs 1765.62 crore, to Scheduled Caste students and Rs 31.2 crore to the Scheduled Tribe students, enabling them to pursue their higher education.

The judges said, “The Central Government under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, has not released the arrears of scholarship to Scheduled Caste students up to 2016-17. A request was made on August 13 to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, to release additional funds under the Post Matric Scholarship share to scheme on priority, so as to enable Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, to release the funds to states.


However, the Social Justice department has said that in anticipation of funds from the Ministry of Finance, administrative approval of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has been granted on August 16, for the balance arrears up to 2016-17 to Tamil Nadu. From the above, it is clear that the Central Government has not disbursed the arrears of their shares of Rs 822.91 crore up to 2016-2017.

Though the Department of Finance, Government of India, is not a party to this litigation, allocation of funds have to be made as per the scheme, promptly. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, represented by its Director, is directed to disburse the arrears of Rs 822.91 crore, representing the Post-Matric Scholarship to SC students up to 2016-17, within two months, from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and also an amount of Rs 162 crore for the year 2017-18,” said the order.

The social justice department, in its counter, submitted that the Centre has been releasing funds to the government of Tamil Nadu, on regular basis. Further, during the year 2018-19, an amount of ` 584.47 crore has been released and balance arrears up to 2016-2017 are Rs 822.91 crore only.

Man acquitted in murder case

Chennai: Overturning an order of the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Erode that sentenced a person to seven years RI in a murder case a year ago, the Madras High Court acquitted him on the ground that the entire evidence placed was self-contradictory in nature. Chithode police had registered the case in 2015 against one Thangavel of Mamarathupalayam. It was alleged that Thangavel used a sharp object to kill his son-in-law who was in an inebriated condition. Based on the statements provided by the mother of the deceased, a complaint was registered.

Seized vehicle released on conditions

Chennai: The High Court released a vehicle that carried M-sand, seized by the Virudhachalam police two months ago, with certain conditions. A Division Bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam, disposed of the writ petition from Senthilmurugan, the owner of the lorry, seeking a direction to release his vehicle. The court said it was for the probing authority to find out whether the transported sand was M-sand or river sand. The petitioner was asked to deposit a sum of `50,000 to the Deputy Director of Geology and Mining, Tirunelveli.

Tamil Nadu bank manager held as man gets Rs 18 crore loan on forged documents
Taken in by his promise, Nataraj, Ramasamy and Harun Rasheed gave him the documents required for processing the loan.

Published: 09th December 2018 04:36 AM |

Image used for representational purpose only

By Express News Service

TIRUPUR : The Central Crime Branch police on Saturday arrested a senior bank manager for allegedly helping a man get `18 crore loan by furnishing bogus documents. Police said that the debtor, his wife, friend and another bank officer, suspected to be a part of the scam, were on the run.


According to police, Shankar (52), a senior manager with the Foreign Exchange Division of the Corporation Bank, allegedly helped Selvakumar (37), a native of Tiruvannamalai, wife Priya (30) and friend Rajesh Kanna (39) get loan from the bank. Selvakumar was reportedly working at a knitwear unit worker in the district, According to sources, Selvakumar obtained a loan of `10 crore from the Corporation Bank by submitting forged documents. As his loan had been sanctioned, he told his friends Nataraj, Ramasamy and Harun Rasheed that he could get their credit approved as well.

Taken in by his promise, Nataraj, Ramasamy and Harun Rasheed gave him the documents required for processing the loan. However, once the loan of `8 crore was sanctioned through the offices of Corporation Bank’s senior manager Shankar and manager Somaiyajulu, Selvakumar scooted.

AirAsia offers 20 per cent fare discount to Vizagites

The AirAsia international flight will be operated four days a week and it will reach Vizag on Friday, Wednesday, Monday and Sunday.

Published: 08th December 2018 09:05 AM |

For representational purposes (File | Reuters)

By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: Here is good news for AirAsia travellers from the city. The airline is offering 20 per cent fare discount for all its flights, both domestic and international, exclusively to Vizagites for three days at AirAsia Travel Fair, which began at CMR Central in the city on Friday.

The discount offer will be valid for those who book their tickets in advance for journey from January to December 2019. According to an AirAsia official, the offer is available for even the connecting flights of the airline on international route.

K Vijay Mohan, president of Tours and Travels Association of Andhra, who inaugurated the fair, said AirAsia’s inaugural flight from Bangkok was scheduled to land at Visakhapatnam International Airport at 11.45 pm on Friday and take off at 12.15 am.


The AirAsia international flight will be operated four days a week and it will reach Vizag on Friday, Wednesday, Monday and Sunday. In the return direction, the flight will leave Vizag on Saturday, Thursday, Tuesday and Monday.

AirAsia’s Bangkok flight is the fourth international flight from the city. The other three are flights to Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai.

AirAsia is operating a flight service to Kuala Lumpur, SilkAir to Singapore and Air India to Dubai. All the three international flights are having good occupancy ratio. Based on a survey conducted by Tours and Travels Association of Andhra and Air Travellers Association, a couple of years ago, AirAsia launched its service to Bangkok. The inaugural flight is almost full with 172 of 176 seats having booked, he said. 

Vijay Mohan hoped that the international flights from Vizag would sustain as the Port City has huge potential.

About 30 per cent of air passengers going to Thailand from Kolkata are from AP. The flight from Vizag will have more patronage as it takes only two and a half hours to reach Bangkok and the cost of the return trip from the Port City will be between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000. Besides, people from Vijayawada are now boarding Bangkok flight either in Hyderabad or Chennai. Henceforth, they may prefer Vizag to go to Bangkok and this will ensure a healthy occupancy in the international flight. In all likelihood, there will be fifth international flight from Vizag as Nok Air, a low-cost airline, is planning to operate a service to Bangkok from next month, he said.

Referring to suspension of Colombo flight by SriLankan Airlines, Vijay Mohan said they were clueless about its withdrawal though the service was doing extremely good with about 70 per cent occupancy.