Court orders

Don’t appoint VC to teacher education varsity for now’

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, FEBRUARY 19, 2019 00:00 IST

UPDATED: FEBRUARY 19, 2019 04:09 IST

HC issues notice to Principal Secretary on a PIL plea

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the State not to appoint any candidate to the post of Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University. The court issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation petition challenging a February 9 government notification for the post.

A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S. S. Sundar further ordered notice to the Principal Secretary of Higher Education and adjourned the hearing till March 4. The court, however, allowed the process for selection to go on.

The petitioner, G. Ramakrishnan, a retired Associate Professor, claimed that according to the government notification, a Ph. D. in any discipline was needed to apply to the post. However, this ran contrary to the objective of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University Act.

Since Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University was a single discipline university, it would be only fit if a Vice-Chancellor with a Ph. D. in Education was made eligible. Universities of medicine, law and agriculture, which were also single discipline universities, appointed only those with a Ph. D. in the respective field, he said.

Even the three previous VCs of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University had obtained their Ph. D. in Education, he said. The present move could dilute the very purpose of establishing the university, he said, and sought to quash the notification.