Chennai, Dec 20 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Friday, on the issue of appointment of vice-chancellors, accused Higher Education Minister, Govi Chezhian of distorting facts and asked the government to include UGC chairman's nominees in search panels and related notifications.

Chezhian alleged governor's interference and accused him of taking the law into his own hands and he reiterated that the search committees had been constituted in accordance with law.

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The Raj Bhavan, meanwhile, said that the Governor, in his capacity as chancellor asked the government to notify constitution of search panels of Anna University, Chennai, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli and Periyar University, Salem by including UGC chairman's nominees.

Government orders were published in the gazette, notifying search committees for these three varsities. However, "the said notifications purposefully excluded the UGC chairman's nominee, in violation of the judgement of Supreme Court," an official Raj Bhavan statement here said.

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On December 18, 2024, Ravi, on the issue of Annamalai University - another state-run varsity - as well, had said that the notification on search panel had excluded the UGC chairman's nominee, in violation of the judgements of the Supreme Court.

The higher education minister's statement is a "distortion of facts and misleading," the Raj Bhavan alleged. Chezhian only mentioned the verdict of apex court of 2013, whereas the top court's latest judgment of 2022 governed the matter of appointments.

Verdict in Prof (Dr) Sreejith P S Vs Dr Rajasree M S & Others held that, "any appointment as a vice chancellor made on the recommendation of a search committee, constituted contrary to the provisions of the UGC Regulations shall be void ab initio (invalid from the beginning of the process)." The court had rejected the submission that the state legislation shall prevail, unless UGC regulations were specifically adopted by the state.

Hence the government's notifications in respect of the state varsities, including the Anna University, are not valid as they contravened UGC regulations and the latest prevailing orders of the Supreme Court.

The chancellor-governor hence, has asked the state government to recall these notifications, and notify afresh the search committees by including the UGC chairman's nominees for the varsities.

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