MADURAI : The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the secretary of the State Eligibility Test-cum-Controller of Examinations of Bharathiar University, for not complying with a court order.
Earlier, allowing a batch of writ petitions, the High Court Bench had declared all candidates who obtained the separate minimum marks as prescribed in the first notification issued on June 4, 2012 for the National Eligibility Test (NET) / SET by UGC and Bharathiar University, as qualified for the post of assistant professor. The appeal preferred by the UGC against the single judge order was dismissed by the Principal Seat of the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court.
Petitioners K Shenkani, X Venti Candida and S Anitha, who obtained a court order, approached the Bharathiar University seeking a revised mark sheet as they had qualified in the SET exam conducted in June and October 2012. When the authorities failed to consider their representation, the petitioners filed a contempt notice against the UGC and Secretary of SET. When the contempt petition was taken up for hearing, the Secretary of SET was not present before the court despite a notice asking him to appear on June 2. Justice K Ravichandrabaabu issued another notice and asked the Secretary SET to appear before him.
When the matter was taken up for hearing on Friday, the standing counsel appearing for Bharathiar University informed the court that they had already, through a letter dated March 20, 2014, informed the Secretary about the contempt petitions.
It had also been specifically stated in the letter that the court might issue a warrant against him for non-compliance of the order. The counsel also stated that though the said communication was received by the respondent, he had not chosen to respond to the same. To this, Justice Ravichandrabaabu said that the SET Secretary had no respect for court orders. He then issued the NBW and directed the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore, to execute the order and produce the Secretary before the court on June 16, 2014.