The Madras high court on Tuesday stayed an order by a single judge of the court directing Anna University of Technology (AUT) to publish an academic ranking of all affiliated engineering colleges to help students make an informed choice.
AUT Chennai and Coimbatore have already ranked colleges under them based on academic indicators. The latest order will apply to the AUTs in Trichy and Tirunelveli. However, this is an interim stay.
Ordering an interim injunction on a plea of the Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated Colleges, the High Court bench, comprising justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal observed that the cardinal principle of law required to be satisfied by the petitioner - N Ramprasanth of Manachanallur village in Tiruchy district - was that he had approached an appropriate public authority to address his issue but it kept pending or was dealt with in an illegal manner. However, he had failed to do that.
According to the appellant, without even making a new demand to the concerned public authority by him, the petitioner had straight away approached this court and filed a petition, which was allowed by a single judge bench comprising Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar a week ago.