Anna University refused honorary doctorate, retired High Court judge said – I was just a guest
Tamil Nadu’s Anna University on Wednesday said it had nothing to do with an event on its campus where around 40 people were conferred “honorary doctorates” by Justice Dr TN Vallainayagam, a retired high court judge. He went there as a guest.
“I have never in my entire career been given letters of recommendation like this. I went there as a guest,” Justice Vallinayagam told indianexpress.com, referring to a purported letter that Vice-Chancellor R Velraj said the organizers of the event had sought permission to use the university’s Vivekananda Auditorium. was presented for
Justice Vallinayagam also said that the university could have called him once to verify the authenticity of the letter.
R Velraj said the university had provided space to an organization called the International Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Council to organize the “award ceremony”. “Last November he requested the dean of the engineering college to provide him space on rent for half a day but he declined the request. But in January we got a ‘recommendation letter’ from Justice Dr TN Vallinayagam. Believing it was authentic, the university provided space for half a day. The organizers then called the event an award ceremony, but nowhere mentioned the ‘honorary doctorate’.
At the event on February 26, around 40 people, including actors, a music director and choreographer and YouTubers, were awarded “honorary doctorates”. Popular comedian Vadivelu was presented a gift by the organizers at his home.
Velraj said he believed that Justice Vallinayagam might also have been duped as the organizers must have informed him that the event was to be organized by Anna University, adding that the signatures of the retired judges were sent to the university. The purported recommendation letter sent may be fake.
“An honorary doctorate can only be conferred by universities and not by any private organization. The people who took it were not even aware of it. We are sorry that such an incident happened on our campus. We will take legal action against the organizers Will start
The letter contained the national emblem and stated that the International Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Council was an intergovernmental body within the United Nations. The organizers paid around Rs 58,000 to rent the campus space.
Velraj said the organizers held the event between 3 pm and 6 pm as many people, including professors, would not be on campus.
Velraj said that one Harish, who claimed to be a member of the council, orchestrated the entire event, adding that the university would no longer rent out space on the campus to private organisations.
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