CHENNAI: In the first such orders issued for state universities under higher education department, the search panels constituted to choose vice-chancellors for four universities have been mandated to submit their recommendations to the state government and not the Governor-Chancellor, as has been the practice so far.
The Tuesday notification, issued after the landmark verdict of the Supreme Court regarding assent to bills that allowed the Tamil Nadu government, instead of the governor, to appoint vice-chancellors, also extends the tenure of these search panels appointed earlier to August 13, 2025.
The four universities are Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University (TNTEU), Annamalai University (ANU), Anna University (AU) and Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU).
Though three-member search panels were constituted and notified for these universities on October 19, 2022, December 9, 2024, December 13, 2024, and January 10, 2025, respectively, these committees could not complete their work due to the tussle between Governor R N Ravi and the state government with the governor insisting on the inclusion of a nominee of UGC chairperson as the fourth member in each of these search panels.
Search panels set up earlier for three varsities have also been revived
Through the orders issued on Tuesday, the government has extended the tenure of these panels till August 13, 2025, to finish their selection process and recommend a panel of three names to the government.
The orders also amended certain portions of the earlier notifications that mentioned that the panel of three names was to be submitted to the Governor-Chancellor. These portions have been now been altered to say that the submission will be done to the government, which is now the appointing authority as per the amended acts of the universities that were granted “deemed assent” by the SC and has since come to force.
The orders on Tuesday also amended the earlier notifications that said the Governor-Chancellor’s nominee in the panels of all these four universities will no more act as conveners of the search panel. They will just be another member like the other two members of the panels. The members earlier nominated for these panels have not been altered.
These four are among the 11 of the 22 state-run universities that are functioning at present without V-Cs.
Following the SC verdict, the government already issued notifications for search panels. Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Tamil University and Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, which are respectively government by Agriculture Department, Tamil Development and Law Departments.
Sources in the higher education department said the search panels constituted through earlier notifications for Bharathiar University, Bharathidasan University and Periyar University have also been “revived”. However, there is no confirmation on whether an order has been issued in this regard since the earlier notifications for these three universities also mentioned that the recommendations of the panels will be submitted to “Governor-Chancellor”.
Academics said an amendment would be warranted so that these panels also submit their recommendations to the government. Interestingly, these three universities did not have a Governor-Chancellor’s nominee in their panels as the composition mentioned in the respective acts governing these universities were different.
Petition in HC against University Amendment acts
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday sought TN’s reply to a petition seeking to declare ultra vires the amendment Acts and gazette notification that took away the powers of the governor-chancellor to appoint V-Cs to state universities and vest those powers with the state government