India, May 21 -- The Madras high court on Wednesday granted an interim stay for a specific provision of a legislation that enables the Tamil Nadu government to appoint vice-chancellors to state-run varsities without the governor's role.

The Universities Amendment Act transferred the powers of appointing vice-chancellors to state-run universities from the governor to the government. It is among several bills which were deemed to have been granted assent by the top court in a case brought by the state against Governor RN Ravi's inordinate delay in acting on bills passed for the second time by the legislature.

A division bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshmi Narayanan granted the stay amid strong opposition by the ruling DMK to ta...