Madras University Syndicate extends term of Registrar by two years, clears five professors of discrepancy in appointment

The Syndicate of University of Madras (UoM), which met on Monday, extended the service of its Registrar, Rita John, by two more years. It also passed a resolution accepting an examining committee’s report clearing the names of five professors from any discrepancy in their appointment.

With regard to the extension of the Registrar’s service, the Syndicate based its decision on the performance assessment report of the Convenor of the Vice Chancellor Committee. Sources said that the University’s various initiatives over the past year, including settlement of long pending pensionary benefits drawing funds from its corpus, resolution of over 700 audit objections that had led to a freeze on pension benefits for about a decade, distribution of 5.5 lakh mark sheets to students, which was pending for at least three years, and resolution of pay and promotion issues of the non-teaching staff bode well for Dr. Rita.

Besides, workshops organised to encourage faculty members to seek externally funded research projects and international collaboration with universities abroad, among other things, contributed to the recommendation of the performance assessment report, the sources added.

In absence of a Vice-Chancellor for the past three years, the University is headed by a Vice Chancellor Convenor Committee headed by the Higher Education Secretary, which made the Registrar the de facto administrative head.

The resolution pertaining to the alleged discrepancies in the appointment of professors has its background in a case filed by a retired professor, Syed Rahmathullah, in 2019. An enquiry committee was constituted in 2024 on court direction, which examined the direct appointment of 22 professors, found irregularities in the recruitment of five, and issued notice to them.

Once their responses were received, the Syndicate formed another committee, comprising Sachin S. Gunthe, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, S. Santhosh Baboo, Principal, DG Vaishnav College, and D. Anand, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, to examine their responses.

The committee submitted its findings in a sealed cover which was opened at the Syndicate meeting on Monday. Sources present at the meeting said that the discrepancies pointed out by the enquiry committee were found to have been cleared by the evidence provided by the professors in question – S. Manivasakan of Centre for South and South East Asian Studies, S.S. Sundaram of Department of History, V. Bhuvarahamurthy of Department of Medical Biochemistry, S. Sumathy of Department of Anthropology, and S. Saravanan of Department of Saiva Siddhantha. It is reliably learnt that examining committee found that the information furnished to the enquiry committee by university officials were “inadequate”.