The Government of Tamil Nadu had accused Governor RN Ravi of stalling the process of forming a search committee to pick vice-chancellors (VCs) for state universities, stated a report in The New Indian Express. Following this, the governor, on Wednesday, September 6, constituted a search-cum-selection committee for choosing VCs of three state universities:
- University of Madras
- Bharathiar University
- Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University
But, a fact to note is that representatives of the University Grants Commission (UGC) have also been appointed as members of the committee without obtaining the consent of the state government. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party has been saying that it is not mandatory for UGC members to be a part of the VC search-cum-selection panels,
As per a press release put out by the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday, September 6, the new committees comprises:
- Governor/chancellor
- State government
- Senate and syndicate of the university concerned
- UGC representatives
The selection committee for V-C of Madras University has:
- Battu Satyanarayana, Vice-Chancellor, Central University of Karnataka as chancellor’s nominee/convener
- K Deenabandu, retired IAS officer and member of state planning commission as syndicate nominee
- P Jagadeesan, former VC, Bharathidasan University as senate nominee
- HCS Rathore, former VC, Central University of South Bihar, as UGC chairman’s nominee
The selection committee for VC of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai comprises:
- Sushma Yadava, member, UGC, as chancellor’s nominee/convener
- K Allaudin, retired IAS officer, as government nominee
- T Padmanaban, former VC of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University as syndicate nominee
- HCS Rathore, former VC, Central University of South Bihar, as UGC chairman’s nominee
According to former VC of Bharathiyar University SP Thiagarajan, the UGC regulation states that its nominee should be included in the VC search panels. "The Supreme Court has also ruled in favour of this regulation. If the state government doesn’t want to include the UGC nominee, then there is a conflict between two statutory bodies. As the chancellor of universities, the governor has all the powers to constitute the search panels. However, it has to be notified by the state government through a government order. We will have to wait and see how the state government will approach this," he said.
He also mentioned the convention, which is that committee members are usually from the state where the varsities are located but this is not mandatory.
As per a 2018 UGC regulation, one member of the search-cum-selection committee shall be nominated by the UGC chairman for selection of VCs of state, private and deemed to be universities. However, Tamil Nadu Universities Laws Act 2017 states that three-member search committees comprising nominees of government, senate and syndicate should be formed to choose the VCs of the universities.
