Advocate Sonali Pandey has written a letter to the Governor of the Madhya Pradesh regarding formation of action/search committee as per Section 13 of the Madhya Pradesh University Act 1973, for permanent appointment on the post of Vice Chancellor of Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, in regard with the notification issued on September, 1, 2023. In the letter sent through Advocate Pankaj Dubey, Pandey mentioned that let it be known that provision for appointment of Vice Chancellors in Section 13, there is a provision in the University Act, 1973 according to which a committee can be appointed which will consist of the following persons that a person elected by the Executive Council, a person nominated by the Chairman of the University Grants Commission”. A person nominated by the Chancellor, it is known that the selection committee of the Vice-Chancellor of Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, the committee notified by your office through the notification referred to, has complied with section 13 of the Act, has not been done. Therefore the said committee is not valid. Through the referred notification, a person nominated by the Chancellor has been kept and a person nominated by the University Grants Commission has been kept as a member. Apart from this, surprisingly, a member nominated by the State Government has been kept, who is the Regional Additional Director Higher Education. Education Department, Ujjain Division, whose name is Dr H L Anilwal, its provision is not in the Act, hence the notification is illegal.

 

The referred notification is not valid because the said notification does not include any person selected by the Executive Council of the University as a member which is contrary to the intention of the legislature. It is to be noted that the provisions of the Act have been passed by the legislature and it is in the democratic interest to appoint a person democratically selected by the Executive Council of the University as a member of the Committee. Therefore, she has urged to reconsider the above mentioned notification on this basis and cancel/postpone it and issue a new notification. It is also noteworthy here that in the Constitution of India and various judicial precedents of the Supreme Court and the High Court. It has been propounded that any other notification/decision/circular of the Council of Ministers cannot be given a place over any law/act, only what is given in the rule/act is supreme. Therefore, keeping this issue in mind, reconsider the notification issued by your office in public interest.