CHENNAI: An associate professor (54) from the Dalit community, working in a city-based college, had alleged discrepancies in the interview process held for the Registrar post by the University of Madras (UoM) in June 2025.
The associate professor was also one of the candidates who attended the interview and alleged that there was no Dalit member on the selection committee, even though 5 out of 9 candidates were Dalits.
Additionally, the professor moved to the Madras HC in December requesting it to order for UoM to conduct a fair selection process with a valid committee. He had also petitioned to consider himself as one of the candidates for the post and appoint a person solely based on merit.
The UoM called applications for the role of Registrar in May last year after S Elumalai was set to resign from the role in June. Initially, 15 candidates had applied, of which 4 were declared ineligible and two did not turn up for the interview. Hence, for the interview, 9 candidates appeared on June 24.
Speaking to DT Next, an associate professor with over 24 years of experience in teaching and research said, “The interview did not seem fair to most of us who attended. We did not compete from the same level of field. It seemed like an eye wash and felt like the current registrar, Rita John, holding the post had already been decided as the Registrar by the selection committee.”
Another candidate, a professor (55) with UoM, who had attended the interview stated that candidates were given 10-15 minutes only for the interview. “However, the current UoM registrar was given 46 minutes. There were also claims that she knows many committee members,” he said. “The interview should be headed either by the Vice-Chancellor (VC) or, in the absence ,a syndicate committee is constituted under the secretary of the Higher Education Department. But, in this case, commissioner of Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), at that time, J Innocent Divya, was deputed.”
As per department sources, Divya was deputed for the role by the former Higher Education Secretary C Samayamoorthy who was transferred on June 23 and the interview was scheduled on June 24. But, candidates question why the interview was conducted in a hurry before the present secretary P Shankar could take over?
The professor added, “As there is no provision for the selection committee members to act on behalf of actual members, why wasn’t the interview withheld till the new secretary Shankar took over?”
It’s noteworthy that former secretary Samayamoorthy had attended the interview for the post of Registrar of Bharathiar University, which happened a week before the UoM interview,
The candidates, too questioned the lack of representation of a member from Dalit community within the committee. “Five of us were from the Dalit community. By that and by the norms of University Grants Commission (UGC), a representation by the community is non-negotiable,” a candidate stated.
Further, as one of the members had filed a complaint about the discrepancy to the SC/ST commission, the commission had urged the Higher Education Department to submit a report on the interview by the first week of April. A senior administrative official of UoM said, “The interview was held fairly and the post was given as per merit. There was no bribe, coercion or foul play involved for procuring the post.”
Since taking the role, Rita John had given up her role as the member of syndicate and HoD of theoretical physics in UoM, the official noted.