The Tamil Nadu government has notified a three-member search committee to recommend to the Governor a panel of three names for the post of Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of the University of Madras, which fell vacant last month.
The notification meant that the government had ignored Governor R.N. Ravi’s ‘notifications’ constituting four-member V-C ‘search-cum-selection’ committees on September 6 for not only the University of Madras, but also Bharathiar University and Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University. The Governor’s notifications resulted in a fresh row between the Raj Bhavan and the State government, with the latter terming Mr. Ravi’s action unilateral and violative of the statutes that governed these universities. It said the Governor did not have any powers to issue such notifications.
The Tamil Nadu government’s extraordinary gazette notification dated September 13, 2023, constituting the search committee for the University of Madras, included Battu Satyanarayana, V-C, Central University of Karnataka, as the Governor/Chancellor’s nominee and the Convener of the committee. The two other members were K. Deenabandu, Member, Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, as the Syndicate’s nominee; and P. Jagadeesan, former V-C, Bharathidasan University, as the Senate’s nominee.
