Former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the Centre’s orders issued in 2011 terminating his appointment as Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor as well as barring him from holding any posts in government or its committees.
A Division Bench had earlier dismissed his writ petition against a verdict of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench, rejecting his plea against the Union government orders. The tribunal had held that as the research fellowship of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professorship was not a civil post or civil service under the Government of India, the application by Mr. Nair was not maintainable under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.
The Centre had issued the orders on the basis of the reports of two high-level committees which looked into an agreement made between the Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia in 2005. The reports said that there were irregularities in the deal.
According to Mr. Nair, the Centre’s orders were illegal as they were issued by the Under Secretary, Department of Space, who was lower in rank than the appointing authority.
Besides, the appointment authority had no power to prematurely terminate his appointment as Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor. He said no reason had been given for terminating his appointment. The appointment authority had also not issued any notice to him before passing the orders. Besides, the High Level Committees which inquired into the deal had not concluded that any loss had been caused to the government.
