The Tamil Nadu government has notified a three-member search committee to recommend to the Governor a panel of three names for the post of Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of the University of Madras, which fell vacant last month.
The notification meant that the government had ignored Governor R.N. Ravi’s ‘notifications’ constituting four-member V-C ‘search-cum-selection’ committees on September 6 for not only the University of Madras, but also Bharathiar University and Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University. The Governor’s notifications resulted in a fresh row between the Raj Bhavan and the State government, with the latter terming Mr. Ravi’s action unilateral and violative of the statutes that governed these universities. It said the Governor did not have any powers to issue such notifications.
The Tamil Nadu government’s extraordinary gazette notification dated September 13, 2023, constituting the search committee for the University of Madras, included Battu Satyanarayana, V-C, Central University of Karnataka, as the Governor/Chancellor’s nominee and the Convener of the committee. The two other members were K. Deenabandu, Member, Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, as the Syndicate’s nominee; and P. Jagadeesan, former V-C, Bharathidasan University, as the Senate’s nominee.
Fourth member
While these three names were present in the same positions in the notification issued by the Governor as well, the State government’s notification, however, omitted the fourth member, a nominee of the University Grants Commission Chairman, who was included in the Governor’s notification.
The inclusion of the UGC Chairman’s nominee was a bone of contention between the Governor and the State government, with the former taking the view that the inclusion was mandatory as per the UGC’s regulations, and the latter appearing to take the view that it was not necessary.
It may be recalled that the Tamil Nadu government had issued similar notifications last year to constitute three-member search committees for Bharathiar University and Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University. The Governor’s notifications, forming fresh four-member committees with the UGC Chairman’s nominees, were seen as an attempt to overrule the government’s notifications. The V-C posts in Bharathiar University and Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University have been lying vacant since October 2022 and November 2022, respectively.
