Supreme Court stays High Court order

​New Delhi: In a huge relief to the state government of Telangana, the Supreme Court here on Monday stayed the order of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad suspending the appointments of Vice-Chancellors to the universities in the state.

The Chief Justice bench stayed the order of the High Court after hearing the arguments of the Telangana government and restored the status quo.

Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the government to plead its case. The Telangana government’s decision to fill vacant posts of Vice-Chancellors in the state came for criticism from the High Court. Before the government issued a GO to fill the posts, a case was pending with the High Court over the appointment of VCs.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice A V Sesha Sai was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by Dr D Manohar Rao, a retired professor of Osmania University and others against the state government’s action in amending the AP Universities Act, 1991 and Acts of other universities existing in the state to make appointment of VCs to universities directly by the government, without consulting the Governor.

The petitioners complained that the state was amending University Acts to take away the autonomy of the varsities in choosing their VCs.

The state has fixed certain qualifications to the professors who can be appointed as Vice Chancellors, but the new amendment envisages that people having administrative experience may also be appointed as VCs, which is nothing but intent to politicize the appointments of VCs and this will pave way for IAS officers and even section officers of the Secretariat to become VCs, he argued. The apex court would hear the arguments again on Friday.