No stay on single judge order on Pachaiyappa’s principal’s appointment

The division bench comprising Justice K K Sasidaran and RMT. Teekaa Raman, before whom the plea challenging Justice S M Subramaniam’s order setting aside the appointment of Shettu and three other principals appointed by the Pachaiyappa’s Trust Board, refused to interfere with the direction. 

However, the bench granted an interim stay to the single judge’s directive asking the administrator to investigate the complaints of corruption in the selection process and lodge a complaint before the Director of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) to enable them to undertake a probe. The bench then posted the case to June 17 for further hearing.

Justice Subramaniam had held that the appointments, as well as the selection, had been made illegally without following the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms of considering all colleges run by a trust as one unit for the purpose of promoting eligible faculty members to the post of principal on the basis of merit-cum-seniority.

The single judge order in his order also held that every other government official responsible for the lapse should also be made accountable since the colleges run by the trust were government-aided institutions.

However, the single judge in his order had offered reasons for ordering a DVAC probe though the cases before him were service disputes over the selection of principals. He said, “Judges are not goldsmiths to create ornaments as per orders placed by their customers. But judges are bound to look in and around the society and initiate action in the event of noticing any unconstitutionality.”