State violates varsity Act in naming registrars

Move upsets academics, officials

The appointments of registrar and registrar (evaluation) of some of the universities including Gulbarga university have been objected to by Governor H R Bhardwaj who is also Chancellor of the Universities and have baffled academic and administrative circles.

A letter written by S Srikanth, Secretary, Higher Education to vice chancellors of all universities virtually seeks to subvert the Act. While asking the vice chancellors to send a  panel of three names to enable the government choose one among them Srikanth has prescribed certain virtues and qualities which are nowhere found either in the Act or in the rules, such as “judgement/foresight, ability to get along with people/ability to negotiate, appetite for work/energy, intelligence, civility, creativity, ability to exercise discretion, mental and physical toughness in adversity, reliability under pressure, effectiveness and above all, integrity.’’

Act justified
The Secretary justified the appointment of academicians instead of administrators for the two important offices, on the ground that numerous changes were taking place in the field of higher education in general and universities in particular. 

What has surprised many is that the Secretary had flouted the KSU ACt by setting his own norms for the posts. Section 17 of the Act says: “The registrar shall be whole time officer of the university and the government may appoint an officer belonging to the All India Service working in super-time scale to be the registrar.’’ Section 18 says that the Registrar (Evaluation) shall be a whole time officer and the government may appoint an officer of the Karnataka Administrative Service, not below the rank of Group A senior scale or a senior member of a faculty of any university.
A senior academician pointed out that the government cannot set fresh norms and rules for the appointment without amending the Act.

“The State Inter-University Board may have taken a decision to appoint academicians as registrars, but its decision cannot run contrary to the provisions of the Act,”  he remarked.

The informed sources revealed that although the government had sought three names to be empanelled, Vice Chancellor B G Mulimani intially submitted only one name, that of Pratap Singh Tiwari for the post of registrar and when his recommendation was returned, he sent another list with Tiwari's name on top.
The government opted for the second name, that of Dr S L Hiremath.