A retired professor and a former syndicate member of Mysore University “have not come to the court with clean hands, clean heart, and clean objective” as they had failed to disclose their correct credentials in their separate PIL petitions, in which they had questioned the legality of appointment of S. Vidyashankar as Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), said the High Court of Karnataka.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit made these observations in the order of dismissing the petitions filed by 66-year-old B. Shivaraj, a retired professor, and 77-year-old K. Mahadev, former syndicate member.
Pointing out that both Mr. Shivaraj and Mr. Mahadev had failed to disclose the particulars of their past and present litigations, and the civil and criminal cases faced or initiated by them in their petitions, the Bench said that this conduct of the petitioners amounts violation of the rules of the High Court governing the PIL petitions.
Declining to examine the correctness of appointment of Mr. Vidyashankar, the Bench said that it has “not expressed any opinion as to the regularity or otherwise of the entire proceedings that culminated into the appointment of Mr. Vidyashankar as the V-C of VTU.”
Also, the Bench made it clear that the observations made this order would be confined to the disposal of these two petitions and the same will not have any bearing on any other proceedings by and between the parties.
