“The State government continues to poke its nose in the affairs of the universities even though the court, a little less than a quarter-century ago, had clearly asked the government to forbear from such interference,” the High Court of Karnataka has observed.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Krishna S. Dixit and Justice P. Krishna Bhat made these observations while allowing a writ appeal filed by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad.
The Bench also said that “the universities are not the notional extensions of the government departments, nor their vassals. They are autonomous bodies and therefore their autonomy should be respected.”
The Secretaries of the government departments, the Bench said, cannot interfere in the affairs of universities in the absence of statutory power and the justification for its exercise.
Also, the Bench said that the court, way back in 1998, had directed the government to forbear from interfering in the affairs of the universities cautioning that it would amount to contempt of court.
The UAS-Dharwad, in its appeal, had questioned a single judge order, which had asked the university to follow the 2019 communications of the State government to appoint only senior-most professors whenever appointments to the posts of the officer are to be made on ad hoc/temporary basis in the agricultural and the horticultural universities.
However, the Division Bench found that 2019 communication of the government amounts to an interference with the affairs of the university as the UAS Act, 2009, empowers the Vice-Chancellors to make appointments to the posts of officer with the approval of university’s Board of Management (BoM).
And the BoM of the UAS-Dharwad had taken a decision to make appointments to the posts of officer on a rotation basis irrespective of their seniority, the Division Bench said while upholding the Vice-Chancellor’s decision of appointing R. Basavarajappa, a professor in the Department of Agronomy, as Director of Education.
The single judge order had set aside the appointment of Mr. Basavarajappa while allowing a petition filed by Digambarappa, who is senior to Mr. Basavarajappa in the same department. Mr. Digambarappa had served as Director of Education twice earlier.
