High Court Questions VCs' Appointments

The Telangana High Court today issued notices to the Vice Chancellors of the Kakatiya University (KU) and the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University (TU), challenging their appointments.

This was done when a bench, comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, was dealing with a petition filed by a retired principal.

In his petition, the petitioner alleged that the VCs of the two universities were appointed in a manner that violated the existing appointment norms.

Pointing out some violations of the current eligibility criteria for the post of VC, he noted that while the VC of KU, Prof Thatikonda Ramesh, did not have even have the mandatory ten years of experience as a teacher, the VC of TU, T Kishan Rao, was 70 years of age.

Responding to the a petition after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the petitioner, the bench issued notices to the two VCs and asked them to file their counters within four weeks.

It later adjourned the case till October 27.

The petition comes just months after the VCs assumed office. They had been appointed on the recommendation of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao amidst mounting public pressure and criticism in May after the posts had lain vacant for nearly two years.