VC to demit office

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUNELVELI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

K. Baskar, Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, will demit office on Friday.

During his tenure, constituent colleges at Sankarankoil, Panagudi and Thisayanvilai got own buildings at a cost of Rs. 6.20 crore.

Other development works include installation of 1MW solar power plant, central instrumentation facility, online admissions and fee payments, launch of integrated courses and innovative PG programmes.

Career Advancements were given on time to teaching staff. Merit scholarships of Rs. 2,000 a month for 400 students and 81 research fellowships of Rs. 5,000 a month were given. Students’ strength also rose up to 2,500 from 970 and several MoUs with international institutions have fructified during his tenure.

His efforts ensured the transfer of patta for 221.36 hectare of land in the name of MSU after 27 years from Department of Animal Husbandry after paying Rs. 11 crore from the MSU funds.

When his appointment was challenged in a court, the petition was dismissed taking note of over 33 years of his teaching and research experience including seven years in international universities, 10 years of administrative experience and his research projects worth more than Rs. 10 crores.

AI Express to resume suspended Sharjah flights

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUCHI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations had registered its grievance on govt. website

Days after Air India Express announced suspension of its services on Tiruchi-Sharjah sector on Sundays and Tuesdays with effect from February 17 to March 31, the airline has now stated that the curtailed operations will be reinstated from April 1.

The airline, which was operating daily service on the sector since September 2016, announced recently that the service from Sharjah would be suspended on Saturdays and Mondays from February 16 to March 30, and from Tiruchi on Sundays and Tuesdays from February 17 to March 31.

Shocked by the sudden announcement, Tiruchi-based Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations expressed its grievance over the suspension through Government of India’s Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System — an online web-enabled system to enable submission of grievances by aggrieved citizens to Ministries/Departments/Organisations.

The grievance sent by federation president M. Sekaran on February 4 stated that the suspension would adversely affect a large number of labourers hailing from this part of the region working in the Middle-East.

It further said there was no reason for the cancellation except for some other reason and appealed for continuation of the service in the larger interest of passengers.

The grievance sent through the online system was received by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

AI response

In an official reply sent to Mr. Sekaran on Monday, the airline said his grievance was referred to the officials concerned at Air India Express, who informed that flights between Tiruchi and Sharjah were curtailed temporarily in view of “aircraft constraints”.

The airline further said passengers were not inconvenienced as there were flights between Tiruchi and Dubai within a span of four hours.

“Traditionally, during this period our flights are not generally full. The few passengers, who had already booked, were given a choice to travel in the airline’s Dubai or the next Sharjah flight. Effective April 1, 2019, the curtailed operations would be reinstated with a daily flight between Tiruchi and Sharjah,,” the airline said in its response.

HC proposes contempt proceedings against Law University Registrar

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

Directs Police Commissioner to serve notice on her


The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered serving of notice on Jayanthi Krishnamoorthy, Registrar (in-charge), Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, through the Commisioner of Police, directing her to appear before the court on February 18 to explain why she should not be subjected to contempt of court proceedings.

A Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and P.D. Audikesavalu passed the order after taking strong exception to “highly intemperate” language used by her against Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the court while seeking the leave of the Bench to prefer a writ appeal against an interim order passed by him on February 1.

When a 2015 writ petition filed by a professor of the university, D. Shankar, seeking a direction to then Vice-Chancellor P. Vanangamudi to reinstate him as the Registrar came up for hearing before Justice Subramaniam recently, he decided to weed out all unqualified faculty members who were not appointed through proper channel. Since Mr. Vanangamudi accused the incumbent Vice-Chancellor T.S.N. Sastry also of not possessing the requisite qualifications, the judge impleaded the latter also in his personal capacity as a respondent to the writ petition apart from 32 others and directed all of them to file affidavits explaining the qualifications possessed by them.

Permission sought

Assailing the judge’s decision to implead the Vice-Chancellor too, the university had sought the leave of the Bench to file an appeal. In an affidavit filed in support of the leave petition, Ms. Krishnamoorthy stated that the single judge was acting according to his “whims and caprice by issuing a continuous mandamus beyond the subject matter of the writ petition.”

‘Inappropriate’

Observing that it was “highly inappropriate” on the part of a responsible officer such as Registrar (in-charge) to make such an imputation against a learned judge of the court, the Bench said such a comment made against him in the grounds to seek leave was not only disrespectful but also undermines the dignity and status of the chartered High Court. Making it clear that the Registrar should explain why action should not be taken against her under Article 215 (power of the High Court to punish for contempt) of the Constitution as well as the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971, the judges directed the Police Commissioner to serve notice on the Registrar at the earliest and forward the acknowledgement by February 15.

MBBS degree-holder cannot be allowed to act as ophthalmologist’

Mohamed Imranullah S

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

High Court takes serious view of a general physician running an eye clinic in Perambalur and practising in govt. hospital

An MBBS degree holder cannot be permitted to act as an ophthalmologist at any cost and especially when the individual had reportedly joined a Diploma in Ophthalmology course in a private institute but could not clear the examinations despite several attempts, the Madras High Court has held.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad said, “Persons without suitable qualification should not be allowed to engage in any professional activity, much less in medicine and particularly eye.” The observation was made in an interim order passed on a public interest litigation petition.

S. Raja of Perambalur had filed the PIL petition accusing a local physician of running an eye clinic in the town besides serving as an ophthalmologist in the government district headquarters hospital at Perambalur. The doctor was also the co-ordinator of Perambalur District Blindness Control Society, the petitioner claimed.

Further, he produced documents in support of his allegation that the general physician had joined a diploma in ophthalmology course in 2013 but could not complete it till 2018 despite making several attempts. He had failed in the examinations on four occasions and was marked absent on four other occasions between 2015 and 2018.

No action

Though a complaint was lodged with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council on November 3, 2018, no concrete action was taken so far, the petitioner alleged and sought a direction to consider his representation. But the judges took a serious note of the issue. On Friday, they directed the Joint Director of Medical Services to take action as per the relevant statutes. Within days after the order, the doctor entered appearance in the case through his counsel on Tuesday and gave an undertaking to the court that he shall not practice ophthalmology. The judges recorded the undertaking.

However, in the meantime, the Joint Director informed the court that he had already sealed the doctor’s clinic. Not happy with such drastic action taken against the doctor, the judges directed the Joint Director to revisit his decision and report to the court by Thursday. “We only wanted you to make sure that he does not practice as an ophthalmologist as alleged but sealing the clinic would directly affect his right,” Justice Prasad said.

Mild tremors felt in parts of city

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

No tsunami warning issued as epicentre was far off


Mild tremors were felt in parts of the city as an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude struck in the Bay of Bengal, 600 km east-northeast off Chennai around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the India Meteorological Department.

According to the IMD, the epicentre of the earthquake was at a depth of 10 km in Bay of Bengal.

The impact of the earthquake, considered of moderate intensity, was felt more in areas closer to the coast. Several Chennaiites took to social media to report they had felt tremors early this morning.

Srilakshmi Mohan, a resident of Neelankarai, said: “I heard the doors rattling for a few seconds in the morning. I learnt later that it was due to an earthquake.”

Weather blogger K. Srikanth said a similar earthquake of 4.8 magnitude struck in Bay of Bengal at a depth of 10 km in December 1995 and one of 4.9 magnitude in January 1986.

However, as the epicentre was far from the city, no tsunami warning was given for the region by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services.

‘Govt. can move National Commission against minority educational institutions’

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

HC records undertaking that eligible students shall not be denied admission

The Madras High Court has made it clear that the State government can approach the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) if it receives complaints accusing any minority school in the State of refusing to admit eligible minority candidates despite availability of sufficient number of seats.

Justice T. Raja granted the liberty while allowing a batch of over 130 writ petitions filed by minority institutions against the government’s stipulation to fill up at least 50% of seats with minority candidates. The cases were allowed after recording an undertaking that the petitioner institutions shall not deny seats to eligible minority students.

Assailing a government order issued by the School Education department on April 5, 2018, senior counsel Fr.A. Xavier Arulraj contended that the GO requires every minority institution in the State to admit not less than 50% of seats with minority students every year failing which they would have lose their minority status.

Claiming that such a stipulation amounted to interference with the administration of minority schools and was directly against the judgments passed by the Supreme Court in the famous TMA Pai Foundation case, the counsel said that it would be impractical to follow the stipulation because the number of minority and non-minority students would keep fluctuating.

Despite welcoming the government’s objective to ensure that more number of minority students get admitted in minority schools, he said the problem arose only when such admission was linked to grant of minority status. If only 10 minority students were available in a year, the schools could not be forced to admit only 10 non-minority students to maintain the 50:50 ratio, he argued.

However, Special Government Pleader C. Munusamy brought it to the notice of the court that the 50% criteria was not a rigid one and the government had no intention to withdraw minority status of an institution even if minority students were not available to fill up 50% of the seats.

“It is only when admission is denied within 50% limit, action will be taken,” he clarified.

Thanks to free rides, over four lakh people travel on Metro Rail

Sunitha Sekar

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST

Thrilling experience:Many passengers were first-time users keen to get a glimpse of the Chennai Metro.R. Ragu

Real test will be to see if numbers sustain after introduction of fares, say officials

Nearly four lakh commuters have travelled on the Chennai Metro Rail system after the new stretch was inaugurated on Sunday. The high footfall is largely due to free rides.

The Metro Rail has had to employ additional staff to clean the stations and trains, as there was considerable littering; in some stations, there were a number of instances of spitting, official sources said. Also, on Monday, there were complaints from commuters that men entered and occupied seats in the ladies’ compartments in trains, sources said.

Sources said that four lakh people had used the system since the inauguration of the new stretch from AG-DMS to Washermanpet. Usually, about 55,000 people travel on the Chennai Metro Rail.

Officials confident

“The real test will be to see if the number of people of travelling through this system goes up significantly after the opening of the new stretch, when fares are levied as usual from passengers. In a week, we will be able to calculate the average of how many people are regularly taking the system,” a source said.

Sources said they expected a significant increase in the number of people of travelling on the Chennai Metro Rail, as it now has stations connecting LIC, Thousand Lights and Government Estate, and thus likely to be used by many office-goers.

Many passengers who took the ride on Monday said they were first-time users and keen to get a glimpse of this system. Ezhumalai S., a resident of Washermanpet, took a ride all the way to Alandur and returned. “I usually take the bus to Alandur but today, since they gave free rides, I decided to use it. I quite liked it; but I’m not sure if I can afford to use it on a daily basis,” he said.

But many office-goers did not like the idea of giving free rides, as they complained that this led to trains being excessively crowded. Radhika Achyuth, a resident of Anna Nagar, said, “I take a train to AG-DMS on a daily basis and usually have a comfortable ride. For two days now, there is no place even to stand. It is certainly not a great idea to give free rides for days together.”

The Chennai Metro Rail has announced that free rides will continue on Wednesday too.