Tamil Nadu assembly passes Bills to empower govt to appoint VCs of 13 universities

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu assembly on Monday introduced and passed two Bills to amend the law of 13 universities and thereby to empower the state government to appoint vice-chancellors of those varsities.
The AIADMK and the BJP opposed the Bills at the introductory stage itself. BJP MLAs walked out in protest. The PMK and the DMK allies Congress, VCK, MDMK, MMK, KNMDK and TVK supported the Bills.
The higher education department governs 13 universities.
The laws are the Chennai University Act, 1923, the Madurai-Kamaraj University Act, 1978, the Anna University Act, 1978, the Bharathiar University Act, 1981, the Bharathidasan University Act, 1981, the Mother Teresa Women’s University Act, 1984, the Alagappa University Act, 1985, the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University Act, 1990, the Periyar University Act, 1997, the Tamil Nadu Open University Act, 2002, the Thiruvalluvar University Act, 2002, the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University Act, 2008 and the Annamalai University Act, 2013.
In the statement of objects and reasons of the Bills, higher education minister K Ponmudy said that in the Gujarat University Act, 1949, and the Telangana Universities Act, 1991, the respective state government has the power to appoint vice-chancellors of universities. Vice-chancellors shall be appointed by the chancellor with the concurrence of the state government under the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.
“It is considered that in line with the aforesaid other state university laws, the government of Tamil Nadu should be empowered to appoint the vice-chancellors of the state universities,” the minister said.
The Bills were passed on a day when the governor inaugurated a two-day conference of vice-chancellors of central and private universities in the state in Udhagamandalam.
The governor acts as the chancellor of the universities and the higher education minister as pro-chancellor. Chief minister M K Stalin said the state government, which had been taking policy decisions, lacked power to appoint the vice-chancellors was causing a huge impact on higher education.
“It has been a tradition for the governor to appoint the vice-chancellors in consultation with the state government, but there is a change in the recent past. Especially, in the last four years, there has been a trend of the governor acting as if he himself has the exclusive right to appoint the vice-chancellors and disrespecting the state government that has the responsibility to provide higher education,” Stalin said.
The chief minister said the inability of the elected government to appoint a vice-chancellor of its own university was causing various irregularities in the overall administration of the varsity. “This is against the principles of democracy,” he said.
The Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission constituted by the Centre to look into the Centre-state relations had recommended that governors should not be vested with the powers — that was not vested by the Constitution — to appoint the vice-chancellors. The reasons cited were that it would give space for controversies and criticism and it would only lead to clash of functions and powers between the state government and the governor.
“As many as 19 universities have accepted the report of Punchhi Commission. The Union home ministry sought the remarks of the DMK government led by me. The state government has responded that the governor should not be given the power to appoint a vice-chancellor,” the chief minister said.
He sought to point out that in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state government had been appointing the vice-chancellor based on the three names recommended by the search committee. In Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, the vice-chancellors were appointed from the list of three names recommended by the search committee, and with the approval of the state government. “Only the government of Gujarat appoints the vice-chancellors. I call upon the BJP MLAs, who had walked out against the Bill, to support it,” the chief minister said.
Similarly, the AIADMK government in 2017 suggested that the Punchchi recommendation could be accepted and therefore there was no chance of embarrassment for the AIADMK members to support the Bill, he said. “Moreover, it is an issue related to the rights of the state, university educational rights of the state, right of the government elected by the people,” the chief minister said, requesting the parties to unanimously pass the Bill.
The AIADMK members had earlier raised strong objections to Congress floor leader K Selvaperunthagai mentioning the name of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa with no mention of her position. Even as speaker M Appavu said the remarks had been expunged, the members were on their feet. In the din, they announced walking out to protest against minister K R Periakaruppan as what they claimed the latter used a derogatory term against an opposition member.