Chennai: The Madras high court has upheld the appointment of Bhaskar Ramamurthi as the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Dismissing the quo warranto petition filed by E. Muralidharan, an alumni of IIT, Justice M Sathyanaraynan said in the light of the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court in various cases with regard to the issuance of a writ of quo warranto, the discretion vested in this court to issue a quo warranto is very limited and in the considered opinion of the court, the selection and appointment of Bhaskar Ramamurthi to the post of the Director of IIT-M has been done in accordance with the provisions of the Institute of Technology Act and Statutes.
The judge, however, said the Union government shall take note of the decision of the Supreme Court and issue appropriate guidelines in the matter of reservation for SC, ST and OBC candidates in the selection and appointment of posts in IITs.
The judge said in the light of the procedure laid down, the candidature of Bhaskar Ramamurthy for the post of the Director, IIT-M was also considered along with four others and after deliberation, he was found meritorious to be selected and appointed as the Director of IIT-M on contract basis and the said procedure cannot be faulted within the light of the statutory provisions.
The judge said it was the submission of the petitioner that the reservation policy was not followed in letter and spirit. On behalf of IIT-M, it has been stated that the reservation policy was followed and in the light of the admission of students as well as recruitment, it was stated that in IITs, there was a Flexi-cadre system by which, the total number of posts alone were fixed and were not distributed grade wise. The mere announcement of the number of reserved posts is no better than inviting applications for the post without mentioning the subject for which the posts are advertised". The Union government shall take note of the decision of the Apex court and issue appropriate guidelines/instructions in the matter of reservation for SC, ST and OBC candidates in the selection and appointment of posts in IITs, the judge added.
