TN Governor loses powers regarding appointment of VCs and control of universities

At the core of the Supreme Court judgment, which deemed ten bills withheld by Governor R N Ravi as having received assent, is the transfer of authority to appoint and remove Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of 13 state-run universities from the Governor to the Tamil Nadu government.

While the Governor will remain the Chancellor of these universities, his role will now be largely ceremonial, stripped of almost every power that was vested in him so far. The state government will now assume the authority to appoint VCs.

Bills relating to the functioning of universities replace the term "Governor" or "Chancellor" with "government" in the relevant legislations. Besides, the Governor will no longer be empowered to appoint his nominee to the search committees constituted for VCs, as the government will appoint two of the three members, with one member chosen by the respective universities.

The legislation states that the search committees will submit their reports to the government instead of the Governor. The VCs will have to submit their resignations to the state government, which will be the only authority empowered to remove them from their posts.

When the changes come into effect, the Tamil Nadu government will have absolute control over the functioning of universities, including the appointment and removal of VCs, even as the Governor remains the Chancellor.

The legislations relate to Madurai Kamaraj University, Bharathiar University (Coimbatore), Bharathidasan University (Tiruchirapalli), Annamalai University (Chidambaram), Alagappa University (Karaikudi), Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (Tirunelveli), and Periyar University (Salem), among others.

The laws passed by the Assembly seek to transfer the powers of appointing VCs in 13 state-owned universities from the Governor to the state government. Both bills cited the Gujarat University Act, 1949, Telangana Universities Act, 1991, and Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.

On April 25, 2022, when two bills were adopted in the Assembly, Chief Minister M K Stalin cited the example of Gujarat, which has been ruled by the BJP for decades, where the state government appoints VCs and not the Governor.

According to the bills, the state government will constitute a three-member committee to search for VCs and appoint them, instead of the Governor. The government is currently engaged in a tussle with the Governor on the composition of the search panel—while the Raj Bhavan says it should consist of four members, including a representative from the UGC, the state government maintains that a three-member committee is sufficient.