The Madras High Court has issued an interim order to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to verify if the teachers and employees of the affiliated/approved/constituent colleges of the Thiruvalluvar University were appointed as per the norms.
The court directed the UGC in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by I Elangovan, a retired English professor of the college.
The court, in its order dated February 26, 2014, noted that it was the responsibility of the UGC to check if the staff were appointed as per the UGC regulations, before filing a report in the form of an affidavit to the court in two weeks’ time.
Thiruvalluvar University has also been directed to cooperate in this regard.
I Elangovan, in his petition, filed under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution, had claimed that the Thiruvalluvar University had admitted nearly 1.5 lakh students in 109 colleges that were affiliated to the university in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore.
Out of the 5,000-plus teachers appointed to the affiliated colleges, only 1,440 were qualified as per the UGC norms. Likewise, only 85 per cent of the answer-paper evaluators were qualified.
The PIL sought a direction from the court to constitute an expert committee drawn from universities other than the Thiruvalluvar University, to reassess the qualification of the faculty.