Hyderabad HC strikes down Telangana order on 8 new V-Cs

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday struck down three GOs issued by the Telangana state government amending the AP Universities Act, 1991, and Acts of other universities of the state to make appointments of vice-chancellors to the universities directly by the government, without consulting the Governor.

The court declared the action of the state government as arbitrary, illegal and contrary to provisions of the AP Reorga-nisation Act 2014. A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice A.V. Sesha Sai delivered the verdict while allowing two PILs by Dr D. Manohar Rao, a retired professor of Osmania University, challenging amending the Acts to take power of the chancellor (Governor) to make appointments directly by the state government.

The court pointed out that the state had no power to amend the rules of the UGC, which was a Central body. The UGC has conditioned 10 years of academic experience for a person to be appointed as vice-chancellor but it was reduced to five years by the state government. The government also stipulated under the amendment that persons having administrative experience could also be appointed as V-Cs.