BENGALURU: The division bench of High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday confirmed the order passed by the single judge setting aside the appointment of of prof KR Venugopal as the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, as the concurrence of the state government was not obtained by the chancellor before appointing him.
A division bench of Justice S Sujatha and Justice Shivashankar Amarannavar dismissed the appeals filed against the order passed by the single judge on September 24, 2019.
The Registrar of Bangalore University, prof Venugopal and office of the Chancellor (Governor) of Bangalore University and the state government challenged the single judge order which was passed after hearing a petition filed by Dr Sangamesh Patil, questioning the appointment.
During pendancy of these appeals, the division bench had stayed the order of the single bench and hence prof Venugopal was continued as the Vice Chancellor. Now, the division bench upheld the single judge's order and dismissed all the appeals.
"Any ratification said to have been made on June 28, 2018 to the appointment order dated June 12, 2018 cannot cure the defects and validate the invalid action. It is well settled legal principle that when the statute prescribes a power to do a certain thing in a certain way, that thing has to be done in that way or not at all", the division bench observed.
Patil had contended before the single judge that the state government's concurrence was not obtained as per Section 14(4) of the Karnataka Universities Act, 2000, before appointing Venugopal by issuing notification dated June 12, 2018. In the writ appeal filed against the single bench's order, Venugopal had contended that the Chief Minister had endorsed his appointment in an order dated June 12, 2018.