A note submitted by the Attorney General of India in the Supreme Court portrays Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi as a constitutional authority battling the State government’s lack of transparency and disregard of regulations.
The 35-page note said there was “no transparency in the entire selection process” related to the appointment of Members of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission.
In fact, Attorney General Venkataramani’s note on behalf of the Governor said the latter “found that the person sought to be appointed as Chairman will have less than a year in office”, and one of the persons recommended as a Member had been suspended for maladministration by the college where he had been working as an Associate Professor.
Also read: Constitutional tyranny: On Raj Bhavan’s use of the veto
The Governor said these concerns had not been not addressed by the State government, and so, the proposal forwarded by the State government had been returned on October 26, and was not pending in the Governor’s office.
Another bone of contention between the State and the Governor was the constitution of the search-cum-selection committee for appointing Vice-Chancellors for the Bharathiar, and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education varsities. The Governor said the government “did not reconstitute the Committee as per UGC Regulations, despite repeated reminders, the Governor – Chancellor had no other option but to add the nominee of the UGC Chairman and reconstitute the Search cum Selection Committee and notify the same”.
In the case of the University of Madras, the Governor-Chancellor has added the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman’s nominee and constituted the search-cum-selection committee.
The Governor said he had already approved the premature release of 362 prisoners from a total of 580 proposals.
On the pending sanction for the prosecution of K.C. Veeramani, former Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration, the Governor said he had asked the State for the duly authenticated investigation report, but had only received “a number of unauthenticated loose sheets”.
The note said sanction had been accorded for the prosecution of B.V. Ramana, former Minister for Commercial Taxes, and C. Vijaya Baskar, then Minister for Health and Family Welfare, on November 13. The grant of sanction was still under consideration in the case of M.R. Vijayabhaskar, former Minister for Transport. Permission to probe G. Baskaran, former Vice-Chancellor, Tamil University, Thanjavur, had been granted on November 18.
