MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has sought a report from the State Government on why vice-chancellor posts have not been filled in nearly 14 state universities and the steps being taken to fill the vacancies.
The court issued the directive after it learned during the course of another hearing that there are no vice-chancellors in almost 14 universities in the State, and that most of the universities are now administered by registrars-in-charge, with all decisions being made by the convenor committee.
“Though this court is not inclined to entertain this writ petition, it wants to know the reasons for not filling up the posts of V-Cs and the steps taken by the State government to fill up the posts,” observed Justice B Pugalendhi.
The court issued the directive while hearing a writ petition filed by A Velanganni Joseph challenging the appointment of S Muthaiah as the in-charge Registrar of Madurai Kamaraj University, alleging that he did not possess the required qualifications.
The counsel appearing for Muthaiah submitted that he possessed all the required qualifications and had been appointed by a competent authority. He further submitted that Muthaiah was functioning only as registrar-in-charge on a temporary basis and that the process of appointing a regular registrar was underway.
After recording the submissions, the court directed the Additional Advocate General to obtain instructions from the principal secretary to the Government, Higher Education Department, on the reasons for not filling up the vice-chancellor posts and the steps being taken by the government to fill the vacancies.
The matter will come up for hearing after three weeks.