Fine arts varsity Vice Chancellor GO stayed

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has suspended the operation of a GO issued by the Telangana government appointing a search committee for identifying and shortlisting three persons for appointment as Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru Fine Arts University in Hyderabad.

Justice A. Ramalingeswara Rao issued the order while dealing with a petition by the varisty’s incharge Vice Chancellor Prof. P. Padmavathi and incharge registrar B. Srinivas Reddy challenging the GO.

Jonnalagadda Sudheer, counsel for the petitioner told the court that the search committee will have three members and the government has nominated its principal secretary (education) Ranjeev Acharya as its nominee. He said the petitioners objected to the nomination of Ranjeev Acharya alleging that she was unduly interfering in the affairs of the varsity.

The counsel for the government informed the court that Ranjeev Acharya is ready to relinquish her place in the search committee. The judge then set aside the Search Committee GO and directed the state to reconstitute the search committee accommodating Justice P. Swaroop Reddy, retired judge of the High Court as the nominee of the UGC Hearing on VCs’ appointment.

The Hyderabad High Court has commenced final hearing on two PILs challenging the amending of the AP Universities Act, 1991 and Acts of other universities existing in TS to appoint Vice-Chancellors to the universities directly by the state government, without consulting the Governor.

D. Manohar Rao, a retired professor of OU moved PILs challenging the amending of the Acts. S. Sriram, counsel for the petitioner, appearing before a division bench comprising Acting CJ Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice A.V. Sesha Sai on Wednesday, told the bench the government issued a GO on September 11, 2015 amending Section 101 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 after adapting the AP Universities Act, 1991. He told the court that the government subsequently passed laws on this

Mr Sriram said that the UGC had fixed certain qualifications for V-Cs, but the amendment allows appointment of people with administrative experience as V-C of a varsity. This, he said, was nothing but an attempt to politicise the appointments of VCs. Mr Sriram said that this will pave the way for IAS officers and even section officers of the secretariat to become V-Cs.

Referring to an allegation made by counsel for the TS government in court on Monday while arguing the case on school fee that liquor lobbies of AP were running schools in TS, Mr Sriram wondered if it was correct for the TS government to dilute the academic structures of varsities. The bench will continue its hearing on Thursday.