The Madras High Court on Wednesday, May 22, ordered an interim stay on the Tamil Nadu government’s amendment that removed the Governor’s power to appoint vice-chancellors in state universities. In its order, the court said it was compelled to grant interim relief because the amendments were unconstitutional.
The Bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan passed the order after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate, K Venkatachalapathy to declare all the amended acts which are in contention with the UGC Act as null and void.
In its order, the court said that certain amendments made by the Tamil Nadu government are unconstitutional and it cannot be allowed to proceed. “The unconstitutionality and repugnancy vitiating the impugned amendment Acts is so glaring and obvious that we cannot shut our eyes. We are convinced that the impugned amendments are ex-facie unconstitutional.”
The Madras High Court further added that if the unconstitutional process is allowed to proceed, it would cause irreparable injury and public interest would suffer.
“We do not propose to stay the operation of the amending Acts in toto. We confine ourselves to staying that part of the legislation which takes away the power of the Governor to make the appointment. In fact, we do not even propose to stay the constitution of the search committees.” read the order.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Dama Sheshadri Naidu argued that in case of conflict between Union government and state laws regarding subjects in the Concurrent list, Central legislation shall prevail. Thus he stated that the TN state legislation was unconstitutional, inconsistent, and untenable in law.
Senior Advocate P Wilson, appearing for the Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department, informed the court that the state had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to transfer the case to be heard with connected matters already pending before the Apex Court. He also argued that there was no urgency in the plea that called for an interim stay and asked why this plea was brought up now since the bills were passed in April.
Advocate General PS Raman submitted that the Supreme Court had ruled against staying legislation unless it was ex facie illegal. The AG further asked for the petition to be listed for after the vacation to give time for the state to file a counter.
The hearing that went on till late evening witnessed tense moments due to repeated protests from Senior Counsel P Wilson to adjourn the case, However, the court rejected the submissions made by P Wilson and went ahead with passing an interim order.
The vacation bench led by Justice GR Swaminathan also explained how the court drew its inspiration and the reason behind why they could not defer granting relief, “It is true that the High Court is on Vacation and that we are sitting as Vacation Bench Judges, To us, it should not make any difference. The Hob’ble Chief Justice of India has observed that court vacation sitting should be rechristened as partial working days. We take inspiration from the said observation.”
The Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a series of bills for amending various provisions in laws pertaining to state universities. The aim of these amendments was to take away the powers of the Governor in appointing vice-chancells of state universities like Anna University, MGR University, Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar University and other institutions.
The Governor did not grant his assent and sat over it for a considerable amount of time. The Tamil Nadu government approached the Supreme Court and obtained a landmark verdict in its favour. The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Governor and reminded him that he has no other role except to act according to aid and advice of the council of ministers.
The Supreme Court also set a timeline for the President and the Governors when it comes to granting assent for the bills.
Taking into account the extraordinary delay in granting assent to the bills, the Supreme Court invoked its inherent power under Article 142, (which allows the Supreme Court to pass any decree) and granted assent to the bills. As a result, for the first time in the history of independent inda, 10 bills became an act without the signature of the Governor.
This landmark judgement by the Supreme Court came as a huge setback for the Union Government and also the office of the Governors across the country.
An advocate from Tirunelveli approached the Madras High Court vacation bench led by Justice GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan challenging the constitutional validity of the amendments.