Appointment of Visveswaraya Technological University registrar termed illegal
Belagavi: The appointment of Prof H N Jagannath Reddy as Registrar of Visveswaraya Technological University has been termed as illegal by VTU's executive council which met over ratification of Registrar's appointment in Belagavi. After the new acting VC of VTU Prof V Shridhar took up ratification of the appointment of Registrar at the EC meeting, 11 members voted against it while only three favoured the appointment and another member remained neutral.
Most of EC members opined that the appointment of Mr Reddy by an acting VC is in violation of VTU Act of 1994 and said, only in case of emergency situation that the university should appoint a Registrar by way of ratification. ''The new registrar, Mr Reddy does not have knowledge of administration nor did he work as Principal of a college or head of department before making it to the post of Registrar,'' said EC member R Shivakumar.
He said, Mr Reddy was suspended as member of EC in the past for having faced several allegations and even the High Court upheld his suspension when he challenged it. After suspending several top officials of VTU including former VC H Maheshappa, Raj Bhavan should have followed the VTU's guidelines while appointing the Registrar, says Shivakumar.
The Governor has streamlined the functioning of VTU after the exit of Prof Maheshappa, former registrar K E Prakash and former acting VC H G Shekharappa and therefore the university does not have an emergency situation so that it appoint a Registrar hastily and illegally, feel EC members.
It many be noted here that former acting VC Shekharappa had to resign to his post a few weeks ago under pressure from some officials of Raj Bhavan to appoint Mr Reddy as Registrar. Sources said, Mr Shekharappa denied to appoint Mr Reddy to the top post as he feared it would be in violation of VTU Act of 1994. However, Mr Shekharappa had to resign to his post without appointing Mr Reddy.
The term of Mr Shivakumar is set to end on June 30 after which Raj Bhavan will form a search committee to appoint a new VC.
