Govt orders annullment of UoM illegal appointments

Near 200 staff were recruited during 2006-07 by violating norms

 The matter regarding the illegal appointments made during the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore (UoM), J Shashidhar Prasad, which had been put on the back burner, has now re-surfaced, with the State government annulling close to 200 appointments made during his tenure.

A June 18 order by Under Secretary, Education department has annulled the appointments under  Sec 10 (1) of the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000. The order noted that the UoM syndicate had made the recruitments in violation of the norms during the year 2006 and 2007.

The order comes following a lengthy delay of five years. It can be recalled that an enquiry report of the one man commission headed by retired judge, H Rangavittalachar over illegal appointments made during Prasad’s tenure, was submitted way back in October 2009.

After examining the various findings and recommendations of the report, and subsequent replies by varsity authorities for show cause notices, the order said: “The University has to function in accordance with law.

 (By) Violating the norms of the State Policy with respect to recruitments, the public are affected and many eligible candidates have been deprived of the opportunities in procuring posts which have been filled illegally. It is very clear that there was no transparency in recruitments made during the period.”

Criminal complaint

Following the report, a Government order, dated June 9, 2010 had also directed that a criminal complaint be filed against Prasad. However, the move had been withheld by another order dated June 24, 2010, saving the former vice-chancellor’s skin.The illegalities were with respect to around 200 appointments of both teaching and non-teaching staff at the varsity, of which 97 appointments were for posts of professors, readers and lecturers. 

The order, quoting from the report, said that Prasad was guilty of violating the Reservation Policy of Government of Karnataka; violating Article 4(0)(0), 4(1)(0), 4(3)(0), of the norms prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the norms prescribed by All India Council of Technical Education and provisions to section 53 (7) of Karnataka State Universities Act; violating the provisions of the University Statute Governing the Conduct of Interview, and violating the directions of the Supreme Court and State government guidelines by regularising some of the cadres of non-teaching posts.

Of the 97 illegal appointments of teaching staff, UGC norms were violated in the appointment of four professors, 11 readers and 33 lecturers, reservation policy was violated in the case of 10 professors, 24 readers and 15 lecturers.
Request

In a reply to a show cause notice dated February 17, 2014, the Registrar, UoM had requested “to drop the proposed annulment in view of Writ Petitions pending before the High Court”. “Because of the writ petitions, it would not be appropriate for the State government to annul the proceedings of the Syndicate,” the Registrar had added. 

The government however, dismissed the request, stating that the High Court had not granted any interim stay in connection to the same.

Reacting to the issue, activist Pa Mallesh, welcomed the order. “Though the order was delayed, we were confident of the same. It also serves as a warning for future Vice-Chancellors from stooping to such acts of corruption,” he said.