Governor and Chancellor of state universities H R Bhardwaj, whose decision to extend Dr H Maheshappa’s term as Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Vice-Chancellor by a year had come under fire, blamed the State government for causing the delay in the appointment of the new V-C.
“People may say whatever they want, but it was the State government that delayed the constitution of a search committee,” Bhardwaj told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function at Raj Bhavan.
“The government appointed its nominee (Director of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, P Balaram) in the last minute, and he did not even attend the meeting. Besides, there was no unanimity on the panel of names. So I decided to extend Maheshappa’s term as per existing legal provision,” Bhardwaj said, justifying his action.
Maheshappa’s three-year term as VTU V-C ended on June 30. The search committee met at Raj Bhavan on June 29 and submitted a list of four names against a requirement of just three names as per the VTU Act, 1994. However, many academicians have criticised Bhardwaj for extending the term of Maheshappa, who is in the thick of many controversies.
A one-man inquiry commission had also been constituted to probe into his alleged fudged engineering marks.
“I had no choice but to extend his term as a university cannot do without a V-C for long,” Bhardwaj said before training his guns at the government. “Ministers are trying to take control of universities. They have no role to play. They have no power. It is the Chancellor who holds the powers in matters like these,” he said.
This could be an indication to the previous BJP government’s attempts to clip the governor’s wings by making amendments to the VTU Act, 1994 and Karnataka State Universities (KSU) Act, 2000, giving power to the State government to conduct inquiries against erring V-Cs.