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NEWS TODAY 23.11.2023

 

HC relief for Block Development Officer

HC relief for Block Development Officer

THE HINDU BUREAU

MADURAI

22.11.23

Bringing relief to a Block Development Officer (BDO), the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Thanjavur Collector to return ₹43,899 that was recovered from the petitioner. The court was hearing a petition filed by D. Raghunathan, who said he was promoted as a BDO and joined the panchayat union office Thiruvaiyaru in 2015.

In 2005, one Chinnaiyan fell down on the road at Kadambangudi village and kept his hand on the wall of a school adjacent to the road. Due to rainfall and short circuit, electricity passed on the wall and he was electrocuted. The father of Chinnaiyan who tried to rescue him also suffered an electric shock and died on the way to hospital.

The legal heirs of the deceased filed suits and claimed compensation. The Electricity Board and the District Educational Officer were arrayed as defendants. The Thiruvaiyaru BDO was made a defendant in 2011.

Though the previous BDO received summons, he did not take steps to contest the suits. The EB and the Education Department contested the case and the trial court awarded the compensation. Execution petitions were filed and subsequently attachment was ordered.

The Collector ordered payment of the decretal amount from the general funds of the panchayat union. The BDOs who held office from March 31, 2005 to February 21, 2015 were asked to deposit an amount. The petitioner was also directed to pay ₹43,899. The petitioner had joined on February 21, 2015, after the ex-parte judgment was passed in 2014. He challenged the order passed by the Collector.

Justice Battu Devanand observed that there was no fault on the part of the petitioner in the entire episode, from the date of the unfortunate incident of the electrocution to the date of the attachment order passed in the execution proceedings. No notice was issued to the petitioner calling for his explanation. The order issued by the Collector was against the principles of natural justice and was liable to be set aside, the court observed.

Financial crisis of MKU dominates discussions at Senate meeting

Financial crisis of MKU dominates discussions at Senate meeting

Madurai Kamaraj University Vice-Chancellor J. Kumar said the university followed its own method to handle the situation.

Vice-Chancellor says the government has been apprised of the financial crisis at MKU; issues pertaining to delay in payment of salaries, transparency in expenditure are also discussed

THE HINDU BUREAU

MADURAI

The government had been apprised of the financial crisis at Madurai Kamaraj University and steps were being taken to resolve the problem, said Vice-Chancellor J. Kumar at the Senate meeting held on Tuesday. He said the Chief Minister could intervene in order to resolve the issue and the university administration would wait for the move.

Issues pertaining to delay in payment of salaries and transparency in expenditure were also discussed at the meeting. A communication was sent to the university with regard to audit objection and it was being looked into, he said.

Mr. Kumar said the university followed its own method to handle the situation. He was responding to the query raised by Senate member Sankar Natesan who sought to know about short and long-term plans for revenue generation to improve the present financial situation.

To a similar query raised by A. Velanganni Joseph, another member, Mr. Kumar said steps would be taken to resolve the issue on the administrative side. A. Chandra Bose, a member, resolved to request the Syndicate that the university fix the maximum duration for Ph.D. thesis evaluation and create an effective online tracking system so that students would be able to know the status of their theses.

After raising queries pertaining to infrastructure issues on the university premises, a Senate member, M. Sulthan Ibrahim, stressed the need to form a committee in order to rectify exam-related issues. The Syndicate members said the issues would be duly addressed.

Syndicate member Nagarathinam told the Senate members that some of the queries that were being raised at the meeting were being repeated in different words. The Senate members said they should be allowed to present their views at the meeting.

In the adjournment motion moved by the Senate members, issues pertaining to mandatory publication of papers in journals, relaxing the Ph.D. entrance cut-off from 50% to 35%, expenses of the university and Honorary Doctorate for freedom fighter Alagam Perumal Kone were discussed. Mr. Kumar read the Vice-Chancellor’s report on the academic developments. A RUSA team also conducted a review of the various projects taken up by the university.

Don’t see a married woman’s residential status through a patriarchal prism, says HC

Don’t see a married woman’s residential status through a patriarchal prism, says HC

The petitioner had challenged the appointment of a woman as village panchayat secretary, on the ground that she was not a local resident as she migrated to her husband’s village after marriage.

Though a married woman ordinarily lives at her husband’s place, she can gain public employment by claiming residential status at her natal place as well, rules Justice R.N. Manjula

THE HINDU BUREAU CHENNAI

Though a married woman ordinarily lives at her husband’s place, she cannot be presumed to have disowned her residential rights at her parents’ house on account of her marriage. The rules of marriage do not impose any such condition on a woman, and therefore, she can gain public employment by claiming to be a resident of her native village, the Madras High Court has said.

“For the purpose of getting a separate ration card after marriage, her name would have got deleted from her parents’ ration card. With that alone, it cannot be said that a married woman had severed her ties with her parents’ place and her residential status in respect of her parent’s house has come to a closure once and for all,” Justice R.N. Manjula said.

The judge made the observations while dismissing a writ petition filed by G. Mayakannan, an aspirant to the post of Jayakondam village panchayat secretary in Cuddalore district. The petitioner had challenged the appointment of a woman to the post, on the ground that she was not a local resident anymore because she had migrated to her husband’s village after marriage.

Rejecting the challenge to the appointment on such a ground, the judge said the appointee had every right to visit or stay with her parents at Jayakondam at her own convenience and choice. Since it had not been disputed by the petitioner that she had roots in Jayakondam, the judge said that in such a case, she could not be perceived to be a stranger to her natal village. “In today’s world, men and women go to several places for the sake of education or occupation, but still consider their native place as their permanent residence. However, there is a notion that a married woman completely abandons her native place and assumes her husband’s place as her only place of residence,” the judge said, disapproving of such notions.

“If a married woman chooses to live between her natal home and marital home on account of her employment, business or otherwise, nothing can prevent her from exercising such an option,” the judge said.

Legal notices

Though the woman appointee in the present case had produced legal notices issued by her estranged husband to prove that she had returned to her parental home, the judge said: “The above facts are completely personal to the petitioner, and she should not have been driven to such compulsion of revealing these private facts about herself for the sake of this writ petition.”

“A woman would turn to her parental abode for any good or bad reasons, and sometimes, she would even prefer to stay there for any period of her choice through an understanding with the inmates of her parental home. The will of a woman to exercise residential choice at her natal home should not be viewed through patriarchal prism in order to deny her the residential status there,” she added.

news today 22.11.23

 

State set to replace governor with CM as chancellor of universities

State set to replace governor with CM as chancellor of universities

TNN | Nov 22, 2023, 05.27 AM IST

State set to replace governor with CM as chancellor of universities

Chennai: Tamil Nadu is in the process of changing the chief minister as the Chancellor of state universities replacing the governor, the state Advocate-General R Shunmugasundaram told Madras high court on Tuesday.

Shunmugasundaram made the submission in response to a public interest writ petition challenging the formation of a search committee to select vice-chancellor for University of Madras without a member nominated by the UGC.

Responding to the submission, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy observed that the court was not concerned about it in the present plea.

“All we wanted to know is whether the University is receiving funds from the UGC,” the judges said. Since the A-G sought some time to ascertain the details, the court adjourned the hearing to December 18.

On November 4, while admitting the plea moved by advocate B Jagannath, the court observed that inclusion of a member nominated by the UGC would be mandatory if the university is receiving funds from UGC.

According to the petitioner, a bare perusal and plain reading of the GO would highlight the fact quite clearly that the nominee of the UGC has been let out deliberately in contravention of the directives of the Supreme Court.

“The GO passed by the state is without jurisdiction and smacks of bona fides as the same has been done as part of an ego tussle with malicious political motives to undermine, discredit, downgrade and destroy the phenomenal historical educational institution,” he said.

Therefore, he wanted the court to set aside the GO dated September 13 as illegal, void and unconstitutional.