Appointment of 4 MIDS professors nixed

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has set aside an order dated August 14, 2006 of the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Adyar, giving approval to the appointment of Dr S Anandhi and three others as its Associate Professors. A division bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and R Subbiah quashed the order while allowing a writ appeal fromD K Sivasubramaniyan, who was not selected to the post.     Originally,  Sivasubramaniyan filed a writ challenging the appointments.   However, a single judge dismissed it holding that MIDS was not a ‘State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution and no writ would lie against it. In the present appeal, the bench said the duties performed by MIDS were in the nature of public functions. “Therefore, in our opinion, MIDS will come within the ambit of ‘State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution and the writ will lie against it.”