CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday temporarily stayed the operation of the 10 amendment Acts covering various state-run universities, which transferred the powers to appoint vice-chancellors from the governor-chancellor to the Tamil Nadu government.
A vacation bench of justices G R Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan granted the interim stay despite strong objections raised by the state government and the higher education department against passing any interim orders without hearing them in detail as the issue is related to the constitutionality of the legislations.
These 10 amendment Acts were notified and came into force on April 11, after the Supreme Court granted deemed assent to the bills in its landmark verdict on April 8 in the case filed by Tamil Nadu government against Governor R N Ravi for delaying assent to the bills.
A BJP-affiliated advocate K Venkatachalapathy alias Kutty of Tirunelveli district moved the HC praying for staying the operation of the Acts. Senior counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu, assisted by V R Shanmuganathan, represented the petitioner and argued that the Acts are repugnant to Regulation 7.3 of the UGC Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges, 2018, regarding appointment of vice-chancellors.
‘TN will move SC against interim stay’
The counsel further stated that education should not fall in the hands of people with political interest, instead, it should be in the hands of apolitical persons. Advocate General P S Raman, representing the state government, and senior counsel P Wilson, appearing for the higher education department, questioned the urgency to take up such matters, which involve constitutionality of the amendment acts that are plenary legislations adopted by the state legislature.
They noted that the amendments acts have come into effect through the judicial order of the SC where the same grounds of repugnancy were raised but were brushed aside by the court. They submitted that the amended acts provide for taking the powers to appoint V-Cs away from the governor-chancellor and not removing the post of chancellor. Further, they noted the petitions have not challenged the constitution of the search committees.
Stating that only two universities have called for applications from eligible candidates, with the last date for applications set on June 3, the A-G sought ample time for filing a counter-affidavit before passing any interim orders. Senior counsel Wilson informed the bench that a memo was filed before the SC seeking transfer of the petitions to the court where a similar case is pending on the applicability of regulations concerned of the UGC.
He added that the matter was mentioned before the CJI who instructed him to inform the HC’s division bench on this. He also pointed out that a gazette notification reproduced in the petitions was not real but a forged one. Speaking to reporters, Wilson said that the TN government will challenge the interim stay in the apex court.