Chennai, Amid its face-off with the Governor over the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) and issues related to the appointment of Vice Chancellors, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday tabled a bill to empower the government to appoint the Vice Chancellor of the Dr Ambedkar Law University.

The new bill, tabled in the Assembly by Law Minister S. Regupathy, is in addition to the two bills that sought to empower the government to appoint Vice Chancellors of 13 state universities.

Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin had earlier told the Assembly that during the past four years, the Governor, without consulting the state government, was functioning as if he has the exclusive right to appoint the Vice Chancellors.

"The state government is not able to appoint the VCs for universities under its control and this has led to various confusions and has gone against the ideals of democracy," he had said.

While the 13 state universities for which two bills were passed earlier for the appointment of VCs are under the aegis of the state Higher Education Department, while the Dr Ambedkar Law University is under the Law Department.

Reghupathy, while tabling the bill, cited the Gujarat Universities Act 1949 and the Telangana (Andhra Pradesh) Universities Act 1991.

These two acts had empowered the respective state governments to appoint the Vice Chancellors. The bill also brought referred to the Karnataka Universities Act, 2000 according to which the Chancellor will appoint the Vice-Chancellor with the concurrence of the state government.

At present, the Tamil Nadu Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the state universities, makes the appointment of the Vice Chancellors from a panel of three names recommended by a selection committee.