Submit docs on MKU VC appointment on Aug 1: Madurai Bench of the Madras HC
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High court on Wednesday directed the secretary to the Chancellor of the university (Tamil Nadu Governor) to submit the entire documents related to the appointment of Mr. P P Chellathurai as vice-chancellor of the Madurai-Kamaraj University (MKU) in a sealed cover on August 1. After the petitioner's counsel G Prabhu Rajadurai filed an amended petition impleading the chancellor and registrar of the MKU as party in the case, a division bench comprising Justices K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan also issued notice to the principal secretary to the state Governor in Chennai, the registrar and the state government.
The petitioner M Lionel Antony Raj, a former student of the University and now the district secretary of People's Rights Protection Centre, challenged the appointment of Mr. Chellathurai on the ground that he did not possess the prescribed minimum qualification of having been served as professor for ten years for the post, even as a criminal case was also pending against him in the Nagamalai Pudukottai police station.
The petitioner's counsel Rajadurai argued that the search committee constituted by the chancellor for the selection of vice-chancellors to the state universities in his notification clearly specified that the applicants should be a distinguished academician with minimum ten years of experience as professor or equivalent position as per norms.
But Mr. Chellathurai in his application showed that he had an experience of 19 years as professor in the university system mostly in MKU, which was totally false, alleged the advocate.
“He has experience as professor only for a period of two years, nine months and 25 days, that too by re-designation of his post of director of the department of youth welfare," contended Rajadurai adding that even after such re-designation as professor, there was nothing academic about the said post. The High court bench recorded the arguments and issued the above mentioned directions.
