The Tamil Nadu Assembly has passed two bills proposing to take away from the governor the power to select and appoint the vice-chancellors of the 13 state-run universities, intensifying the face-off between the DMK government and the state’s executive head.

The bills, adopted by voice vote, will, however, now have to be sent to the governor, R.N. Ravi, for his consent that is needed to turn them into laws. In case the bills are sent back to the Assembly and are again cleared by it, the governor will have no option but to sign them.

Ravi, who has had testy ties with the government, has been accused of dragging his feet on 13 bills since the DMK came to power last year.

The Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Madras (Chennai) University Amendment Act, 2022, piloted by higher education minister K. Ponmudi, were passed on Monday after the Opposition AIADMK and BJP had staged a walkout.

The bills seek to empower the state government to appoint the VCs of the 13 state-run universities in Tamil Nadu, including the University of Madras that is one of the oldest in the country.

RN Ravi. File photo

At present, the governor selects and appoints the VC of a university from a panel of three names recommended by a search committee.

Speaking in the Assembly, chief minister M.K. Stalin said that while the governor was the chancellor of the 13 universities and the higher education minister the pro-chancellor, the state government, despite taking policy decisions on higher education, still did not have the power to appoint VCs. This has created lacunae in the higher education system, he said.

Stalin said that though traditionally the governors took the government of the day into confidence while appointing VCs, this had been given the go-by in Tamil Nadu, particularly in the last four years. The governor has made such appointments on his own, disregarding the state government, the chief minister said.

When a popularly elected government had no power to appoint VCs, it created anomalies in the administration of universities and undermined the democratic ethos, he said.

Referring to the Punchhi Commission set up in 2007 to review Centre-state relations, he said it had recommended that the power to appoint VCs should not be vested in the governor. The Constitution did not envisage such powers for the governor.

Stalin pointed out that the Punchhi Commission had said that if the prerogative of appointing VCs remained with governors, “there would be a clash of functions and powers”. As many as 19 states, including Tamil Nadu, have accepted this recommendation of the Punchhi Commission, he said.

After the DMK came to power last year, the Union home ministry had again sought the Tamil Nadu government’s view on this recommendation. Stalin said the state government had categorically replied that it should be accepted.

Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is among the states where the state government appoints VCs.

Stalin said that in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, it is only with the consent of the state government that VCs are appointed.

The matter concerns the rights of the states and even the previous AIADMK government had in 2017 accepted the Punchhi Commission’s recommendation, Stalin said.

The two bills were passed by the House on a day governor Ravi was chairing a conference of VCs of state, central and private universities in Tamil Nadu in the hill station of Ooty. Congress MLA Ku. Selvaperunthagai objected to Ravi inviting a Tamil Nadu industrialist with RSS sympathies to deliver a special address at the Ooty meet.

The DMK government has been unhappy with Ravi, a former Nagaland and Meghalaya governor, for his delay in not sending to the President for his assent the bill the Assembly had passed seeking exemption from medical entrance exam NEET. Stalin had called Ravi’s move to sit on bills an “insult” to the state and DMK MPs led by T.R. Baalu had during the budget session of Parliament demanded the governor’s recall.