Syndicate, senate members can’t be treated like chattel: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court has expressed anguish for the manner in which the members of the syndicate and senate are treated like ‘chattels’.

Reinstating members of syndicate and senate of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), who were replaced by a new set of members in October 2020, Justice G Narendar said if institutions of excellence are being run in such a manner, where appointments are changed to suit political considerations, it only speaks of volumes about the state of affairs in such institutions and also a reflection of the civil society.

The petitions were filed by Dr Deepthi Bhava and others. They were appointed as members of the syndicate and senate on October 16, 2018, and removed and replaced by a new set of members on October 23, 2020.

“It is sorry to see that the appointment of such persons has resulted in litigation only because such people are sought to be painted with a political brush irrespective of their academic excellence. It can be safely presumed that ‘eminent people’, as mandated in the provisions, would remain eminent and their eminence would not be diminished by their political affiliations or by the fact that they have been identified as members of any political dispensation or party,” the court said.

The government advocate submitted that the removal was in the interest of the administration. The court termed it as “a lame duck excuse to get rid of persons who probably are not of the same feather but are appointed by a dispensation bearing different colours.” The bench also observed that nothing was placed to demonstrate that the persons who have replaced the petitioners are of pre-eminence or more eminent than the petitioners.

“If the appointment is for a definite tenure that is till the reconstitution the members could not have been removed by the competent authority or by the State Government without recording valid reasons. It is not pointed out by the respondents, either by the University or the State Government as to how the administration suffered on account of the appointment of these petitioners,” the court said.

When the university pleaded that a short term remains to the petitioners, the court directed to it ensure reinstatement so that the petitioners can be allowed to leave with their heads held high.