Amid the ongoing standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the Tamil Nadu government on the appointment of vice chancellors to three universities, governor R N Ravi on Tuesday withdrew three notifications he had issued last year on the matter.

The development comes days after chief minister M K Stalin met Ravi, following a recent suggestion of the Supreme Court to resolve their differences.

“The governor is hopeful that the government will now constitute search committees including a nominee of UGC (University Grants Commission) chairman in line with the judgments of constitutional courts,” the Raj Bhavan said in a statement.

However, he also sought that the state too withdraw its three notifications and go forward by issuing fresh notifications for constituting search committees in line with the UGC regulations 2018 and judgments of the Supreme Court and high courts.

Governor Ravi cited a judgement of the Madras high court from December 19 last year directing the government of Puducherry and the Puducherry Technological University to take immediate measures “to amend statutory provisions governing the varsity to bring it in conformity with the UGC Regulations 2018”.

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“In view of this clear enunciation of the law, the Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, in his capacity as Chancellor of the concerned Universities is confident that in deference to constitutional proprietary and legality, the Government of Tamil Nadu would withdraw its Notifications…” the Raj Bhavan’s statement said. “..and awaits appropriate action from the Government of Tamil Nadu at the earliest in this regard to ensure that the cause of higher education and (the) future of several hundred thousand students in the state are not adversely affected.”

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

Last November, the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the notifications issued by the governor. Following a direction by the top court for chief minister M K Stalin and governor to meet to iron out pending issues, the former led a delegation of senior ministers and bureaucrats to the Raj Bhavan on December 31.

This issue began on September 6, when the governor announced that three search-cum selection committees to appoint vice-chancellors to the University of Madras, Bharathiar University in Coimbatore and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University in Chennai will be constituted. He also introduced a fourth member in the committee by nominating a person on behalf of the chairman of the UGC. Hitherto, the process was that the governor, government and the university would appoint a nominee each to form a three-member search-cum selection committee.

On September 13, the higher education department under the then minister K Ponmudy (who has been disqualified from his post after being convicted in a corruption case in December 2023) issued a notification for a search-cum-selection committee by excluding the nominee of the UGC chairman.

This angered the governor, who called the government’s actions an “act of impropriety” and demanded that the state withdraw their notification. As a result of this standoff, the three universities have been without heads for months which prompted the state to move the Supreme Court on the matter.