Tamil Nadu Guv R N Ravi calls for V-Cs meet, invites Vice President, triggers negative response from parties

Chennai: Amidst frosty ties with the ruling DMK dispensation and against the backdrop of the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the Tamil Nadu government, Governor R N Ravi has convened a meeting of Vice Chancellors of state universities, choosing to invite Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar for the inaugural session in the alluring hilly Nilgiris district for the week-end.

The meeting scheduled for April 25 and 26 has already triggered a negative response from the political parties here, particularly the Left, which has appealed to the V-Cs to boycott the meeting.

A source told PTI that the Vice President is scheduled to address the V-Cs during the inauguration and after attending various other programmes, he would visit Coimbatore on April 27 before leaving for the national capital.

According to a communique from the Raj Bhavan here, the annual conference of the Vice Chancellors of state, central and private universities/institutions of Tamil Nadu, was being organised at the Raj Bhavan, Udhagamandalam, for the fourth consecutive year.

"The Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankar has consented to be the chief guest and inaugurate the conference on April 25. R N Ravi, Governor-Chancellor of state universities of Tamil Nadu will preside over the conference," the release stated.

The conference aimed to have detailed deliberation and interactive sessions on a gamut of issues covering implementation of national credit framework, academic collaborations among universities, use of Artificial Intelligence to maximise learning outcomes, financial management in educational institutions, research excellence, promoting entrepreneurship, capacity building for learners, etc.

There would be a special address by Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, on "Frontiers in Science and Technology." It may be recalled that Dhankar had expressed his resentment against the apex court ruling and said Article 142 has become a nuclear missile against democratic forces available to judiciary 24x7.

"We cannot have a situation where you direct the President of India and on what basis? The only right you have under the Constitution is to interpret the Constitution under Article 145 (3). There it has to be five judges when Article 145 (3) was there, the number of judges in the Supreme Court was eight, 5 out of 8, now 5 out of 30 odd more," he said recently.

The V-Cs meeting is being held after the Supreme Court’s verdict that the 10 bills re-adopted by the state assembly, including those on appointing V-Cs and another elevating the chief minister as Chancellor of universities, were deemed as having received the assent.

A week ago, Chief Minister M K Stalin had addressed the V-Cs and registrars of state-run universities.

Condemning the Governor for convening the meeting, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, an ally of the DMK, said as per the Supreme Court verdict, the CM assumed powers to nominate the Vice Chancellors of state universities and that Ravi had hardly any role to play in this regard now.

Another ally, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai, said his party would initiate contempt proceedings against Ravi and also stage black flag demonstration during the Vice President and Governor's visit to Nilgiris on April 25.

Flaying the Governor over convening the meeting, CPI (M) state secretary P Shanmugam said Ravi was intentionally provoking confrontation by inviting the V-Cs to a meeting as he no longer had the authority to conduct it.

"This is not only contempt of the Supreme Court verdict but also a gross violation of constitutional norms," he said in a post on the social media platform 'X' and demanded the state government to direct the Vice Chancellors not to attend the meeting.

He noted that the state legislature had already adopted a bill to remove the Governor as Chancellor of universities and this was upheld by the apex court.