Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan, has directed Vice Chancellors of nine universities in the state to tender their resignations citing adverse observations regarding the appointment process in a recent verdict by the Supreme Court on October 21. The SC while cancelling the appointment of Rajasree MS, who served as VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, said the search committee had unanimously recommended only one name to the Chancellor, instead of three names as mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Professor Gopinath Ravindran of the Kannur University, over whose re-appointment the government had a face-off with the government earlier this year, is also in the list of persons asked to resign. The others who have been asked to resign, are VP Mahadevan Pillai of Kerala University, Sabu Thomas of Mahatma Gandhi University, KN Madhusoodanan of Cochin University of Science and Technology, K Riji John of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, MV Narayanan of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, MK Jayaraj of Calicut University and V Anil Kumar of Thunchathezhuthachan Malayalam University.
"Upholding the verdict of Hon'ble Supreme Court dt 21.10.22 in Civil Appeal Nos.7634-7635 of 2022(@ SLP(c)Nos.21108-21109 of 2021) Hon'ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan has directed Vice Chancellors of 9 varsities in Kerala to tender resignation," said a tweet from the official handle of the Kerala Governor, attributed to the Raj Bhavan PRO.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court has delivered the verdict that “in view of the two binding decisions of the Supreme Court ( (i) Gambhirdan K.Gadhvi (ii) Anindya Sundra Das & Others ), any appointment as a Vice Chancellor made on the recommendation of the Search Committee, which is constituted contrary to the provisions of the UGC Regulations shall be void ab initio. If there is any conflict between the State legislation and the Union legislation, the Union law shall prevail even as per Article 254 of the Constitution of India to the extent the provision of the State legislation is repugnant. Therefore, the submission on behalf of the State that unless the UGC Regulations are specifically adopted by the State, the UGC Regulations shall not be applicable and the State legislation shall prevail unless UGC Regulations are specifically adopted by the State cannot be accepted,” said the letter sent to VCs and shared by Raj Bhavan.
Upholding the verdict of Hon'ble SupremeCourt dt 21.10.22 in Civil Appeal Nos.7634-7635 of 2022(@ SLP(c)Nos.21108-21109 of 2021) Hon'ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan has directed Vice Chancellors of 9 varsities in Kerala(see image) to tender resignation: PRO,KeralaRajBhavan pic.twitter.com/tsT5tQ9NJr
— Kerala Governor (@KeralaGovernor) October 23, 2022
The letters sent to Vice Chancellors asking them to tender their resignations, gave them time till 11.30am October 24 to do so. These letters have also been emailed to VCs and Registrars of universities concerned, said another tweet from the handle. October 23, Sunday and October 24, are holidays.
Search committees for six varsities in the state – University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala University of Fisheries & Ocean Studies, Kannur University, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit – had proposed single name panels for VC appointment in place of three. VCs of three other universities – Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, University of Calicut and Cochin University of Science & Technology – have been asked to resign for forming Search Committees with non-academic members. In February this year, Kerala High Court had upheld the appointment of Kannur VC Gopinath Ravindran.
Ever since the governor took office in 2019 there have been intermittent rows over disagreements between his office and the state, beginning from the unanimous resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act by the state assembly which the governor termed unconstitutional. His pro-CAA views had resulted in another row only days before that, when historian Irfan Habib objected to it during an event at the Kannur University. Governor Arif's issues with the Kannur University VC, who had been present for the event, began soon afterward.
Three years later, the issue has not died down. Recently, he called a press conference at Raj Bhavan and telecast the 2019 event, claiming he was attacked by Irfan Habib and the state police did nothing about it. Governor Arif brought up other charges in recent weeks. Recently he gave orders to remove 15 of the 17 members of the Kerala University Senate, after they abstained from a meeting called for proposing a person for the committee that would select the next Vice Chancellor. Last Monday, he made another threat, tweeting that he could sack state ministers, after a comment was made by Minister R Bindu over the delay in signing the Land Amendment Bill.