Vice-chancellors of six Kerala varsities on Monday moved Kerala High Court against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s controversial order asking them to resign.
Citing an October 21 Supreme Court order that annulled the appointment of MS Rajashree as the VC of the A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University for violating the norms of the University Grants Commission, Khan on Sunday ordered these nine VCs too to resign pointing out that the process of their appointments too was dubious.
The Court will hold a special sitting on the matter at 4 pm. The development comes following an instruction by the Kerala government asking all these VCs to stay put and to defy the Governor’s order.
Two of the VCs are already on the way out: Kerala University vice-chancellor V P Mahadevan Pillai will retire on October 24 and Technological University VC Rajashree’s appointment had been annulled by the Supreme Court. The other seven universities whose VCs have been asked to put in their papers are: Mahatma Gandhi University, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kannur University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, University of Calicut and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University. Interestingly, some of the VC appointments at Kannur, Malayalam and Fisheries varsities had Khan’s approval.
The VCs were to put in their papers before 11.30 a.m. on Monday, October 24. However, this did not happen. Meanwhile, sources said that the Raj Bhavan is looking to ask two more VCs to resign from their posts. Notices would be given to the VCs of Kerala Digital University and Sree Narayana University. Khan’s latest attack is in line with his previous statements alleging that the CPM-led Kerala government was needlessly intervening in the matters of varsities to appoint close associates of its ministers of their aides, especially to the post of professors or VCs. “The people who now hold these posts now incapable of discharging their duties.
It has left the whole education system in Kerala in shambles,” Khan had said. However, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed the Governor’s charges as vain attempts to create a constitutional crisis in the state and appease the RSS. “Khan is abusing his powers as Chancellor to disrupt the functioning of our universities. It is anti-constitutional and anti-democratic,” Vijayan said. The Governor and the government had been at loggerheads with each over a slew of issues. The row over the alleged violation of UGC norms in the appointment of VCs at Kerala varsities is the last among them.
