The Madras High Court has decided not to pass any interim orders, for the time being, on a couple of cases related to the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to State-run universities in Tamil Nadu and instead take up the main writ petitions for final hearing on September 2, 2026.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan took the decision after hearing Advocate General Vijay Narayan and taking note that many of the official respondents were yet to file their counter affidavits.

The A-G brought to the notice of the court that one of the two writ petitions before the court was filed by K. Venkatachalapathy, alias Kutty of Tiruneveli, in 2025, challenging a number of legislations aimed at amending the statutes governing various State-run universities.

A Division Bench of the High Court had entertained the writ petition on May 21, 2025, and stayed the operation of the amendments, which took away the power of appointment of Vice-Chancellors from the Chancellor (Governor) and vested it with the State government.

However, on appeal by the State government, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s order and recorded the government’s submission that it shall not appoint Vice-Chancellors until the High Court takes a final call on the writ petition that had challenged the amendments.

Thereafter, P. Bhaskar, a cable TV operator from Guduvancheri in Chengalpattu district, had filed a writ petition in the High Court this year, complaining that most of the State-run universities were functioning without Vice-Chancellors for long, due to the dispute over who would be their appointing authority.

When the two writ petitions were listed for hearing, the A-G told the court that if any interim arrangement had to be made until the disposal of the two cases, then the State government, and not the Chancellor (Governor) alone, should be permitted to appoint Vice-Chancellors.

He said that since the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s interim order, the natural corollary was that the amendments passed by the State legislature were in operation at present and hence, the State government would be entitled to select one out of three names recommended by the search panels constituted for appointing Vice-Chancellors to every State-run university.

After hearing him, as well as senior counsel N.L. Rajah representing one of the writ petitioners, the judges directed the Registry to list the writ petitions for final hearing on September 2, 2026.

Published - August 03, 2026 03:59 pm IST