Federalism on Trial: The Battle Over University Governance
K Ashok Vardhan Shetty | 11 June 2025 | DT Next
CHENNAI: India's higher education system has become the unlikely arena for a constitutional showdown of far-reaching significance. What appears as a bureaucratic tussle over Vice Chancellor (VC) appointments masks a deeper and graver contest-between federalism and creeping centralisation, between plenary State legislative authority and the overreach of Central subordinate legislation, an between academic freedom and bureaucratic control. The outcome of this contest will shape not merely university governance, but the very character of Indian federalism….