HC quashes audit objection against Bharathiar University

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) has quashed the audit objection raised by the state against the assistant professors, under the UGC plan of Bharathiar University and the court directed the university to grant arrear pay to the assistant professors.

Even if the state government is a body that funds the University, the state cannot, under the guise of auditing the accounts of the University, interfere with the internal administration of the institution, which power of the University includes the power to make appointments as well as promotions, observed a division bench of the HC comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq.

It is unfortunate that even after 13 years of service in the Bharathiar University and after having completed probation as well as being promoted the appellants are made to face such audit objections with respect to their initial appointments itself, which hang like the sword of Damocles, on their careers, observed the bench.

It was beyond the state’s power as well as jurisdiction under the Tamil Nadu Local Fund Audit Act, 2014, as well as under the Bharathiar University Act, 1981, to have raised objections with regard to the validity of the appointments made under the UGC XI Plan, the judgment reads.

The bench also directed the university to pay the arrears that the appellants are entitled to on the basis of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) promotion orders.

A batch of appeals was taken up by the division bench challenging the single judge’s order, which dismissed the petitions filed against the audit objection in Bharathiar University.