Anna University justifies suspending Mannar Jawahar

Chennai: Justifying the suspension of P. Mannar Jawahar, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, and now professor, on the eve of his retirement, Anna University (AU) has informed the Madras High Court that if he was permitted to retire, it would preclude the authorities from taking action against him.

S. Ganesan, registrar in-charge of AU, stated this in his counter-affidavit filed through AU counsel V.S. Sundar, to the petition from Mannar Jawahar which sought to quash the order of the AU, not permitting him to retire on his attaining the age of superannuation on October 31 and retaining him in service until the enquiry into the charges contemplated against him were concluded and final orders were passed by the competent authority.

P. Mannar Jawahar, Anna University,

Justice R. Subbiah, before whom the counter was filed, posted further hearing of the case to December 11.

In his counter, Ganesan submitted that a three-member committee comprising senior academicians had found that prima facie, large-scale irregularities had taken place in the revaluation of answer scripts of AU students. Three persons were placed under suspension and during the enquiry, one of the suspended faculty members deposed before the enquiry committee, pointing to the petitioner as the cause for the discrepancies caused during the revaluation of examination papers.

The higher education secretary directed AU to take action against the petitioner. As per AU statutes on disciplinary procedure, a person against whom enquiry is pending has to be placed under suspension.

Therefore, upon being intimated that the matter was being enquired into by the DVAC, AU passed the order placing the petitioner under suspension. If the petitioner is permitted to retire, then AU would be precluded from taking any action against the petitioner. In that event, AU would be denied the right to probe into the misconduct committed by the petitioner, he added.