COIMBATORE: Former Anna University vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy has urged the Tamil Nadu governor and the chief minister to break the impasse over VC appointments by adopting a temporary, consensual mechanism under existing University Acts and conventions, explicitly subject to the outcome of judicial review.In a letter written “with deep concern and a sense of urgency.” Balagurusamy, also a former UPSC member, noted that the dispute over VC appointments was sub judice, with Lok Bhavan and the state govt holding ‘principled positions’ based on differing readings of constitutional and statutory powers. While courts would provide authoritative clarity, he warned that prolonged vacancies were already damaging the functioning of state universities.He said several institutions were operating without full-time vice-chancellors or were relying on stopgap arrangements, resulting in “administrative paralysis” and delays in academic decision-making. The fallout included stalled faculty recruitment and promotions, uncertainty in financial governance, and erosion of academic morale. “Most importantly, students are bearing the consequences,” he said, arguing that they were unconnected to the institutional dispute.Balagurusamy cautioned that universities could not remain “hostages to an unresolved stand-off” and recalled Tamil Nadu’s public universities as long-standing centres of learning, social mobility and research.He proposed that both constitutional offices consider a pragmatic compromise “without prejudice” to pending proceedings, using existing laws to appoint VCs on an interim or regular basis, expressly conditional on judicial outcomes. Such a course would restore stability, protect students and faculty, demonstrate statesmanship and constitutional maturity, and keep higher education above political conflict, he added.
