BENGALURU: The State government on Monday informed the High Court that graduates of any university can be considered as ‘educationists’ and they are eligible for nomination as syndicate members to the Bangalore University as per the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.
Accordingly, all six nominees made to the syndicate of the BU are graduates and five of the six appointments are in accordance with the law. But, one of the nomination needs to be reviewed as there is a conflict of interest, the government told the court.
Recording the submission of the State, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar disposed the public interest litigation(PIL) challenging their appointments. However, the bench gave liberty to the petitioner to challenge the government’s decision.
The State, further said that the syndicate members in question are graduates from universities established by law and have contributed to education sector, as well as promoted education to some possible extent.
Accordingly, they are liable to be considered as educationists under the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.
Further, the State government, however, said that it is left to the discretion of law makers and competent authority to make nominations to the syndicate to decide in this regard.
The petitioner N K Ramesh, Principal of BTM First Grade College, had challenged the nomination of these members on the ground that none of the six members was eligible as they were not eminent educationists as prescribed under Section 28(1)(g) of the Karnataka Universities Act, 2000.