Law school posting under cloud
A Subramani & S Deepak Karthik TNN
Chennai : Amid mounting allegations of irregularities in state universities, a controversy has erupted over appointment of registrar of the Tamil Nadu National Law School, for which Chief Justice of the Madras high court is the chancellor. The selection of T Vengadesan by an executive council, which has vice-chancellor Kamala Sankaran, Justice T S Sivagnanam of the Madras high court , advocate general Vijay Narayan and state law secretary S S Poovalingam as its members, has come as a surprise.
Aformer railway employee with experience in commercial, marketing and traffic costing, T Vengadesan was assistant registrar at IIT-Madras for about two years before moving to the ministry of mines. In 2011, he joined Delhi University’s finance department.
Section 14(1) of TN National Law School Act mandates that an aspirant must be an ‘academician in the field of law’, and should have held position not lower to that of the principal of a government law college or professor of a university for a period of not less than three years. Vengadesan only has an undergraduate law degree.
Functioning properly with no irregularity, says law school VC
If the applicant is from the government’s side, he/she should be an officer not lower in rank than a deputy secretary, law department. Since Section 2(h) makes it clear “government” means the state government, a finance department official from Delhi University is hardly qualified for the job. But the executive council found him the most suitable among three candidates at theAugust2017interview. He assumed office in October, and an appeal was submitted to Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, chancellor vested with powers to examine any record of any officer, and then to annul or reverse or order reconsideration of any decision under Section 9(4) of theAct.
Asked about the appointment, Kamala Sankaran told TOI she was not going to talk about it. “Our chancellor is chief justice of the state…We are a respectable university established by state government and itisfunctioning properly… Ihave no idea what you are talking about.” When thechief justice’s office was contacted for response on the statutory appeal submitted under Section 9(4) of theAct, sourcestoldTOI itwas not a statutory appeal but a letter requesting the CJ to look into the issue and pass appropriate orders. The letter was forwarded to the vicechancellor who said there was no irregularity in the appointment, sources said Vengadesan had more service experience than other candidates, and the word ‘government’ in the rule could not be confined to state governmen they said but did notcomment on whether a university is ‘government.’ Justice K Chandru, former judge of theMadras high court, said a university could never be a government, and chancellor of a university has appeal powers. The visitorial power in Section 9(4) of the Act is an effective remedy. Referring to a judgment of a division bench of Justice A K Ganguly and JusticeChandru, hesaidthe visitorial power was inherent power derivedfrom UKlaws.
A Subramani & S Deepak Karthik TNN
Chennai : Amid mounting allegations of irregularities in state universities, a controversy has erupted over appointment of registrar of the Tamil Nadu National Law School, for which Chief Justice of the Madras high court is the chancellor. The selection of T Vengadesan by an executive council, which has vice-chancellor Kamala Sankaran, Justice T S Sivagnanam of the Madras high court , advocate general Vijay Narayan and state law secretary S S Poovalingam as its members, has come as a surprise.
Aformer railway employee with experience in commercial, marketing and traffic costing, T Vengadesan was assistant registrar at IIT-Madras for about two years before moving to the ministry of mines. In 2011, he joined Delhi University’s finance department.
Section 14(1) of TN National Law School Act mandates that an aspirant must be an ‘academician in the field of law’, and should have held position not lower to that of the principal of a government law college or professor of a university for a period of not less than three years. Vengadesan only has an undergraduate law degree.
Functioning properly with no irregularity, says law school VC
If the applicant is from the government’s side, he/she should be an officer not lower in rank than a deputy secretary, law department. Since Section 2(h) makes it clear “government” means the state government, a finance department official from Delhi University is hardly qualified for the job. But the executive council found him the most suitable among three candidates at theAugust2017interview. He assumed office in October, and an appeal was submitted to Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, chancellor vested with powers to examine any record of any officer, and then to annul or reverse or order reconsideration of any decision under Section 9(4) of theAct.
Asked about the appointment, Kamala Sankaran told TOI she was not going to talk about it. “Our chancellor is chief justice of the state…We are a respectable university established by state government and itisfunctioning properly… Ihave no idea what you are talking about.” When thechief justice’s office was contacted for response on the statutory appeal submitted under Section 9(4) of theAct, sourcestoldTOI itwas not a statutory appeal but a letter requesting the CJ to look into the issue and pass appropriate orders. The letter was forwarded to the vicechancellor who said there was no irregularity in the appointment, sources said Vengadesan had more service experience than other candidates, and the word ‘government’ in the rule could not be confined to state governmen they said but did notcomment on whether a university is ‘government.’ Justice K Chandru, former judge of theMadras high court, said a university could never be a government, and chancellor of a university has appeal powers. The visitorial power in Section 9(4) of the Act is an effective remedy. Referring to a judgment of a division bench of Justice A K Ganguly and JusticeChandru, hesaidthe visitorial power was inherent power derivedfrom UKlaws.
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