Karnataka HC dismisses petition challenging appointment of S Vidhyashankar as VTU VC

BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday dismissed a public interest petition questioning the appointment of S Vidhyashankar as the Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University. The bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit had earlier reserved the judgement.

The High Court has clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the legality or the entire process related to his appointment. It has emphasised that this decision only pertains to the petition and will not have consequences on any other related case. Former interim Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University, Prof B Shivaraj, who had retired, had filed the petition related to the appointment.

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The petition has claimed that the formation of the State Government's inquiry committee for the appointment of VTU's Chancellor was irregular under the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules and Section 13 of the VTU Act, as it did not include a representative from the UGC with eligibility and integrity. According to the petitioner, the appointment of the individual who meets the criteria and requirements of the Central Human Resource Development Department and UGC is necessary for the role of Vice Chancellor at VTU. The judgement copy is awaited.