HC dispenses with arrest order after appearance of Higher Education Secy

Justice N Kirubakaran who had issued a direction to arrest him or produce him on January 9 for his failure to appear before the court on Monday as per a statutory notice, said “When the matter is called, the officer is present before this court. In the affidavit filed in support of the above application, he has tendered an unconditional apology for his absence on Monday and he has also stated the circumstances due to which he could not be present before this court.”

“In view of the unconditional apology tendered and considering the reasons in the affidavit filed in support of the above sub-application, the order dated January 7 is recalled. Further appearance of the Higher Education Secretary is dispensed with,” he added.

The issue pertains to Bharathiyar University failing to abide by the court orders restraining the varsity from operating distance education study centres and not grant affiliation to such centres to operate outside the State from the academic year 2018-19. But notwithstanding this order, the University Syndicate passed a resolution on November 28 to admit students, leading to the present contempt petition.

Following this, Justice Kirubakaran on December 4 had stayed the resolution since such a move to admit students in the middle of the academic year meant that students are permitted to write the examination without even attending the classes.

Based on this, Justice Kirubkaran in his order while seeking to know whether admissions have been made defying the ban, said, “It is not known as to whether the Syndicate meeting is only a formality, or the members discuss and take a decision.”

“Therefore, this court would like to know what kind of discussions take place during a Syndicate meeting and the proceedings of the Syndicate meeting is directed to be placed before this court in a sealed cover on the next hearing date so that this court would be in a position to understand whether the Syndicate is functioning and decisions are taken after discussions and deliberations,” the Judge said.

Since Bharathiyar University had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the study centres contrary to University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations, the Judge suo motu impleaded UGC as a formal party in the contempt petition to assist the court.

The case has been posted to January 25 for further hearing.