Karnataka High Court Rejects Plea Challenging Continuation Of Dr. Ishwara Bhat As KSLU Vice Chancellor

A single judge bench of Justice R Devadas said,

"On going through the Memorandum of writ petition, it is clear that the petitioner is an association of law students, but it does not appear that the petitioner is a registered Association. Even if it is a registered Association, it is clear that the objectives of such an Association would be to protect the interest of the law students who are its members. No individual interest or collective interest of the law students seems to be infringed or affected by the appointment or continuation of the 4th respondent, as the Vice Chancellor of the Law University."

It added, "However, if the petitioner Association insists that the prayer of the petitioner for the issuance of the Quo-warranto against the respondent is to be heard, this court is of the considered opinion that this writ petition not being filed in the nature of the public interest litigation, requires to be rejected and is accordingly rejected."

Advocate Vittal B R appearing for the petitioners had earlier submitted that section 14 of the Karnataka State Law University Act of 2009, clearly mentions the term of office of Vice Chancellor. The year of birth of the present Vice Chancellor as stated in the University records is 1955. So in the year 2020 he completed the prescribed age limit of 65 years. Reliance was placed on the documents retrieved by him from the University website.

During the preliminary hearing the court was of the prima facie opinion that writ petition seeking a writ of Quo-Warranto as against Bhat cannot be maintained and the same is required to be filed as public interest litigation.

Placing reliance on several Supreme Court judgements, the government advocate submitted that public interest litigations are not maintainable in service matters. However, the same is maintainable when the prayer is for issuance of a writ of Quo-warranto.

Accordingly, the court rejected the petition. However, liberty is reserved to the petitioner-Association to file public interest litigation, with the same prayer seeking of Quo-warranto, if it so desires.

As per the plea Prof. (Dr.) P. Ishwara Bha (Respondent 4) was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of KSLU on 13th June 2018 to administer and run the affairs of the University.

It is stated that in Chapter III of the KSLU Act, 2009 under the heading "Officers of the University" and under section 14(5) in page number 9,10, & 11 of the Act, the term of office that the Vice Chancellor can hold has been defined. It was claimed that the present VC, even after fully being aware that he has crossed the age of retirement and is not authorised, has taken many important decisions and performed actions on behalf of the University.

Case Title: Law Students Association v. State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 2125/2022

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Kar) 83

Date of Order: 05TH DAY OF MARCH, 2022

Appearance: Advocate VITTAL B.R for petitioner; Advocate M.C.NAGASHREE for respondent

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