The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notice to the University of Madras, returnable by October 1, on a petition that sought quashing of the selection of a nominee, representing the varsity’s Syndicate, to the Search Panel constituted for identifying the new Vice Chancellor.
Express reported the issue in July, when a special Syndicate meet was called to select its nominee to the search panel. Senior members came out against the decision of V-C G Thiruvasagam to allow proxies of ex-officio members to vote during the meet.
The petition, filed by the Madras University Teachers’ Association, which came before Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, contended that the varsity was required to follow the laws of the university as provided in Chapter 19 and clause 15 of the Madras University Act for elections in the syndicate and the senate meetings. While the ex-officio members were allowed to send representatives to the meetings, the Act clearly stipulated that such representatives cannot vote during the meetings. The plea said that while the Returning Officer for any election in the University was the Registrar, the V-C took the role of conducting the election in the instant case, which was totally arbitrary.
In terms of clause 3 of chapter 19, it was abundantly clear that all members present at the meeting shall be entitled to vote, but no vote shall be given by proxy, it said. The plea prayed that the court quash the notification effecting the nomination of R Balasubramanian to the search panel as Syndicate’s member.
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