President returns files on appointments to IITs, varsities

A few files on judicial appointments may also be returned unsigned.

Pranab Mukherjee

AS the general election draws close, Rashtrapati Bhavan has decided to return several files unsigned. Majority of these files relate to appointments in various Central universities and IITs.

Sources said several files pertaining to judicial appointments too are lying unsigned and are likely to be returned without the President’s assent. They, however, said the President is yet to take the final call.

On March 18, Rashtrapati Bhavan returned five important appointment files to the HRD Ministry.

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One of these files related to an appointment in IIT-Kanpur to appoint the Visitor’s nominee for the selection of Professor in the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering.

Another file, related to IIT-Madras, was for the conferment of an honorary degree on Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, the chairman of Narayan Hrudayalaya Hospitals.

A file seeking permission of the President to replace the Executive Council member in the selection committee of vice-chancellors of Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya in Madhya Pradesh and the Central University of Rajasthan was also returned.

The remaining two files that were returned pertained to the appointment of Visitor’s nominee in Delhi University for the appointment of teachers and the other for appointing the Visitor’s nominee on the board of management of the Central Agricultural University, Manipur.

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President of India is the ex officio Visitor and Chancellor of all Central universities and also it is the President who issues the “warrant of appointment” of judges to High Courts and the Supreme Court. It is understood that among the pending judicial appointments are those of judges to several High Courts, including the Delhi High Court.

The sources in the government said the return of the files pertaining to “minor’’ appointments to IITs and universities is a clear indication that the President is unlikely to play along with the UPA government in pushing important appointments such as those of Lokpal and its members, a process which has already been set in motion.

They said the files were sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan for the President’s assent after the elections were announced. On March 3, the government had decided against sending ordinance on anti-graft bills that were pursued by the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi after gauging the reluctance of the President to sign one after the Model Code of Conduct had come into force.

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