CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to the University Grants Commission (UGC), the centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking constitution of a high-powered committee headed by a retired chief justice of a high court to supervise the process of appointment of vice-chancellors to state universities.
Stating that education is of paramount interest, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan directed the respondent authorities to file the reply/counter-affidavits by July 29.
Further, it said the PIL filed by P Bhaskar of Guduvanchery will be heard with earlier petitions challenging the university amendment Acts which provide for transferring the powers of the chancellor-governor to the state government for appointing V-Cs to state universities.
Senior counsel N L Rajah submitted that 16 major universities in the state are functioning without V-Cs, and that the panel for appointing them was yet to be formed.