BENGALURU: Exactly one year after Dr H Maheshappa was suspended as Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Belagavi, on charges of irregularities, the university executive council has passed a resolution to initiate legal action against all those involved.
Following directions from the Governor and Chancellor, the Justice K N Keshavanarayana committee report was placed before the Executive Council at a meeting held on March 22.
After a detailed discussion the council decided to initiate legal action against those involved in the irregularities and also against those named in the report.
Confirming this, highly placed sources in VTU said, “In the inquiry committee report, some names are mentioned against a few charges while it refers to the ‘authorities concerned’ as regards some other accusations. So, we have decided to initiate legal action against both.”
However, to punish those involved in irregularities in construction work and tender process, the council has decided to conduct one more inquiry so that action can be initiated against specific people. “The fresh inquiry will just focus on listing the names of people who were involved based on the position they were in, when the irregularities took place,” said a source. The committee will also calculate the loss to the university in civil works.
When contacted, VTU Vice-Chancellor Dr Karisiddappa refused to reveal any details. He just said “the guilty will be punished.”
Case history
In March 2016, Governor and Chancellor Vajubai Vala issued an order suspending then VTU V-C Dr H Maheshappa based on a report submitted by a fact-finding committee.
Challenging the order, Maheshappa sought legal remedy, but the High Court refused to stay the suspension saying there was no illegalities in the order.
Later, the governor wrote to government, along with a copy of the report, asking it to take further action. But till date, the government has not initiated any action. Officials of the Higher Education Department said the file is with the Law department.