Supreme Court’s refusal to stay has come as a disappointment to a section of faculty. more-in With the Supreme Court refusing to grant interim stay of the Madras High Court’s judgement that set aside the appointment of P.P. Chellathurai as Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, activists have urged the State government to expedite the process of selecting a new VC. S. Vanchinathan, State Coordinator of People’s Rights Protection Centre, which moved the court against Mr. Chellathurai, said that there was no obstacle for the Governor’s office to appoint its nominee to the Search Committee. “The appeal moved by Mr. Chellathurai has been posted for next hearing in the third week of July, providing time for respondents to file their affidavits. There is no reason why the Search Committee cannot be constituted as per the directions of Madras High Court to choose a new VC in the meanwhile,” he said. Echoing his thoughts, R. Murali, secretary, Save MKU Coalition, said that steps must be taken to elect a nominee from the Senate to the Search Committee so that the committee got its full strength to become functional. He reiterated the coalition’s demand that Mr. Chellathurai must vacate the VC’s bungalow since it might provide him scope to influence the administration. Mr. Vanchinathan added that the presence of communication from Registrar’s office to the Governor’s office in the affidavit filed by Mr. Chellathurai in the Supreme Court had raised suspicion that he was still influencing the administration. On the other hand, the Supreme Court’s refusal to grant stay has come as a disappointment to a sections of faculty members in the university, who are supportive of Mr. Chellathurai. “Things were progressing at a considerable pace in the past one year. It looks like the university is going to enter another phase of uncertainty in administration,” an Associate Professor said.

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