Madras High Court okays interview for professors, associate professors in Anna University

Justice D. Hariparanthaman also sought to provide details of the backlog vacancies for the Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribe candidates.

R. Prabakaran has filed a petition in the court seeking to quash the advertisement issued by the principal secretary and commissioner of Technical education for the recruitment of professors and associate professors in the 12 colleges of AU and Regional offices in Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli.

The petitioner also contended the advertisement for new recruitment would result in restarting a new roster. This would also amount to de-reservation without following the procedures, said Prabakaran.

The petitioner claimed that the Higher Education secretary was not the competent person to take a decision on de-reservation, and he could not direct the registrar to start the 200-point roster system afresh without following the existing roster system maintained in each college.

Elaborating it further, the petitioner said that in the case of SC/ST, the Higher Education secretary should make a proposal for de-reservation only after consulting with Adi Dravidar and Tribal welfare director and secretary and obtain their comments on each proposal.

The higher education secretary should also give full justification for such action. This apart, after receiving their options, the proposal should be placed before the committee of Higher Education secretary and Adi Dravidar Welfare secretary to obtain its recommendations. And then it should be placed before the minister for final approval, said the petitioner.

Similar in the case of Most Backward Class, the government should follow the same procedure.

Ironically, the secretary of Higher Education and the commissioner for Technical Education did not follow such procedures, he claimed.