CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for Anna University to go ahead with the convocation scheduled for Friday (May 19), though there is no regular vice-chancellor.
“This court is of the view that the convocation can be conducted as concerted by the Chancellor (the Governor) on Friday,” the vacation judge M Govindaraj said on Thursday. The judge said, there was nothing in the statutes to substantiate the arguments by the counsel for the petitioner that only an academecian should hold the post of VC.
The Syndicate Committee was conferred with the powers of administrative functions to conduct the convocation with any one of the officers of the University, the judge added and dismissed the writ petition from Anna University Teachers’ Association (AUTA).
The petition from AUTA, represented by its president, Dr I Arul Aram, sought to quash a resolution adopted by the Syndicate of Anna University on March 3 last to conduct the convocation on May 19, as illegal.
Under the scheme of the AU Act, it was the vice-chancellor, who alone should perform the functions, which included convocation. Or else, the Higher Education Secretary could be requested to perform those functions during the tenure of the VC. But, it did not mean that even after the VC’s term expired and a Search Committee constituted to select a new VC, the secretary could perform the functions of the VC.
Before the expiry of the tenure of the VC, a new one should have been appointed, who alone could confer the degrees on the students at the convocation, Aram had contended.