Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Friday sought permission from the Supreme Court to appoint vice-chancellors for three universities. Petitioner Manohar Rao had approached the court challenging the decision of the TS government to relax the V-C eligibility norm of a working professor to five years against the UGC norm of 10 years. The court has posted the case for next Friday.
Earlier, the TS government had appointed seven V-Cs to regular universities and one for the Agriculture university in July by amending the State Universities Act to relax norms and by removing the Governor as Chancellor of Universities. These appointments were challenged in the High Court. The court struck down these appointments. Following this, the state government approached the SC against the HC orders, arguing that the state government had the power to amend eligibility norms while stating that Governor would continue to be the Chancellor for all universities.
The SC approved these appointments in August this year. Senior counsels Subodh Markandeya, C.V. Singh and Adii Narayan argued the case on behalf of the petitioner. They stated that the appointment of V-Cs being done by TS government were unconstitutional. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who argued for the state government said the Governor continues to be Chancellor for universities and the government was appointing V-Cs with his approval. The bench comprising Justice C.S. Thakur sought to know who were empowered to appoint V-Cs and if search committees came under the purview of the Governor.
