Quorum to pass any resolution: Karnataka High Court

In what may be a setback to the Bangalore University’s (BU) Task Force on Teacher’s Education, the High Court recently asked the Academic Council to take a call on the resolution passed in the council in the absence of a quorum.

Hearing petitions filed by Karnataka International Education Trust, Pali Education Society and Smt Mehra’s College of Education, Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh said: “The recommendations made by the Academic Council in its resolution appears to have fallen short of the requirement of quorum and in the absence of minimum quorum, the resolution or recommendation is non-est. In this regard, statute 4 in Chapter 4 of Bangalore University’s Statutes provides for requirement of quorum of 35 members in the Academic Council.”

The order was made with reference to the Academic Council meeting on July 11 where it was resolved to place all the local inquiry committee (LIC) reports dealing with BEd colleges under the purview of the task force. This meeting was attended by 32 members, short of three members for the quorum.

‘Tell Court the Facts’

In his defence, Task Force Chairman H Karan Kumar said that both Academic Council and Syndicate, in their meetings in March 2006, had resolved to set

the quorum for Academic Council meetings as 21 members instead of 35 members according to the existing statutes.

“The meeting in question was attended by 32 of the 42 total number members. All 32 have unanimously passed a resolution,” he said  adding that the High Court has to be appraised of these facts.

The task force has submitted an official memorandum to acting Vice-Chancellor N Rangaswamy asking the university to file a review petition. The copies of the memorandum have been sent to Governor and Chancellor H R Bhardwaj and Registrar B C Mylarappa.