Madurai: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) present Vice Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai doesn’t have the qualification for the post and ‘he was Government’s choice’, the search committee members told the court on Tuesday.
Dr Harish L. Metha and G. Ramakrishnan, the search committee members of MKU, which was constituted by the state government to select suitable persons for appointment of VC, on their counter affidavit filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court also revealed that the committee convener Dr C. Murukadas refused to adopt objective criteria for shortlisting the candidates.
“What was resolved in the meeting held on 24th April, 2015 that there must be column for the applicant’s declaration ‘that there is no criminal charge sheeted/ criminal case pending against me’. But to my great shock and surprise the convener has with a malafide intention, removed the column with the premeditated intention of including his own candidate in the panel,” said Metha. He also refused to include a column for enclosures in the application for verifying the claims of the applicants, said Ramakrishnan.
M. Lionel Antony Raj, a former student of the University challenged the appointment of Chellathurai on the ground that he doesn’t possess the minimum qualification of having served as professor for ten years and that a criminal case was pending against him in Nagamalai Pudukottai police station.
When the case came up for hearing before the division bench comprising Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan on Tuesday, the two members informed the court that when the convenor mentioned the name of Chellathurai for the VC post during the final meeting held in a private hotel near Raj Bhavan on 19th May, both of them raised objection to it. As the counsels appeared for the VC and registrar of the MKU sought time to file their counters, the court posted the next hearing on 16th August.
