Chennai, Dec. 30 -- President Droupadi Murmu has returned the Tamil Nadu University of Madras Amendment Bill, seeking to empower the state government to appoint its vice chancellor, an official source said on Tuesday.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly, which passed the bill in April 2022, had sent it for presidential assent, aiming to take control of the 168-year-old university which has been managing the affairs without a vice chancellor for over two years.

The bill sought to amend the University of Madras Act by transferring the power to appoint and remove the VC from the governor, now serving as ex-officio chancellor of the varsity, to the state government by replacing "chancellor" with "government" in the Act.

The President had recently retu...