Bombay high court stays state’s GR appointing MU registrar

ORDER WAS PASSED IN PETITION FILED BY SENATE MEMBER DHANESH SAWANT CHALLENGING THE GOVT RESOLUTION

K A Y Dodhiya

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday stayed the January 8, 2021 government resolution (GR) appointing Dr Ramdas Atram as registrar of University of Mumbai (MU) on deputation, and directed Dr Atram to immediately hand over the charge to Baliram Gaikwad who was appointed as temporary registrar, after the demise of the previous registrar Dr Ajay Deshmukh. The order was passed in a petition filed by senate member Dhanesh Sawant challenging the GR and arbitrary appointment of Dr Atram, contrary to the provisions of the Maharashtra State Universities Act.

On Thursday, when the petition came up for hearing, the division bench of justices SC

Gupte and SP Tavade was informed by advocate Anjali Helekar for the petitioner in the previous hearing that the university through the vice-chancellor was well-equipped to appoint its officers. She submitted that the university was a ‘statutory body’ and did not require the intervention of the state government to make appointments of its officers, hence the January 8 GR was ‘arbitrary, excessive, unreasonable and in utter disregard’ of the provisions of Maharashtra State Universities Act, 2016.

Additional public prosecutor Kedar Dighe for the state, however, opposed the petition and said that the petitioner had no locus and the issue could not be dealt with in a writ petition. Dighe further submitted that the state government had taken the step to appoint Dr Atram as he was more qualified as an administrator and the temporary term of the registrar appointed for six months after the death of Deshmukh was ending on January 2. Dighe stressed that the state government had powers under the relevant laws to appoint officers to state universities. However, the court was not satisfied by the submissions and held that the January 8 appointment order was not valid. The court then directed Dr Atram to hand over the charge of the registrar to Gaikwad with immediate effect.