Tamil Nadu to replace governor with CM as chancellor of universities, AG tells HC

Tamil Nadu is in the process of replacing the Governor with the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of State Universities, the state’s Advocate-General R Shunmugasundaram told the Madras High Court on Tuesday (November 21).

He made this statement while responding to a public interest writ petition that challenged the formation of a search committee by the state government to select a vice chancellor for the University of Madras without a UGC-nominated member in it.

The court told the AG that it was not concerned with it in the present plea.

“All we wanted to know is whether the University is receiving funds from the UGC,” said the bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy.

The court adjourned the hearing to December 18 since the Advocate General wanted some time to obtain the details.

Earlier, while hearing the petition on November 4, the court had made an observation that if the University received funds from the UGC, it would be mandatory for the search committee to include a member nominated by the central body.

The petitioner had said, “The Government Order passed by the state is without jurisdiction and smacks of bona fides as the same has been done as part of an ego tussle with malicious political motives to undermine, discredit, downgrade and destroy the phenomenal historical educational institution.”

This comes in the background of the Tamil Nadu government filing a plea in the Supreme Court against the delay in the clearing of state bills by the Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi. Among the pending bills passed by the state assembly is one that removes the governor’s authority to appoint vice chancellors to state universities.

The apex court bench hearing the case observed that some of the bills pending with the governor dated back to January 2020, and raised the question, “What was he doing for three years?”