MKU VC appointment case: Petition transfer to Madras HC main bench sparks row

MADURAI: Transferring the case related to challenging the appointment of Mr. PP Chellathurai as vice chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) here to the Principal Bench of the Madras High Court in Chennai is seen as act of "bench hunting" by the advocates here.

The matter was mentioned in the Principal Bench, Chennai on August 18, two days after, the division bench here comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan had directed Ramesh Chand Meena, principal secretary to the Chancellor ( the Governor of Tamil Nadu) to file a counter affidavit on the contentions raised by the petitioner's counsel that the principal secretary had maintained a direct communication with Chellathurai, one of the candidates, during the selection process without the knowledge of others. The petitioner's counsel said these in his representation sent to the Registrar General, High Court, Chennai, seeking to re-transfer the case to the Madurai bench.

The case took a serious turn after the two members of the VC Search Committee informed the Madurai bench that they were forced to accept Chellathurai for the post and the selection process was not conducted fairly.

"This is nothing but an act of  'bench hunting' as the case was heard on more than two occasions before the Madurai bench, whose Judges even expressed their disapproval of the principal secretary maintaining a communication directly with one of its candidates. Besides, it was specifically listed on August 30 finally for filing counters," said the counsel in his letter, copy of which is available with DC. 

Moreover, it was highly inappropriate that the matter was mentioned before the Principal Bench without any notice or intimation to the petitioner or his counsel, so as to deny them a hearing in transferring the above case from the Madurai bench, said the counsel.

The case was tagged along with writ of mandamus petition filed by Traffic Ramaswamy in the Principal bench who sought to cancel the recent appointment of VC for Madras University and the MKU. "Traffic Ramasamy petition is only a mandamus to consider the representation and without any legal or serious factual submissions, but the petition filed in Madurai bench had challenged Chellathurai's appointment to the VC's post for violating the regulations," said a jurist.

The Supreme court has also discouraged the practice of 'bench hunting' or forum shopping, the practice adopted by litigants to get their cases heard in a particular court that is likely to provide a favourable judgment, the jurist added. The case has been posted for hearing at the Principal bench in Chennai on September 4.