In a move that could escalate his running feud with the government, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has served Kerala University an ultimatum to nominate a member on the search-cum-selection committee for the next Vice Chancellor within a week.
Raj Bhavan has shot off a letter to the university against the backdrop of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launching a scathing attack on the Governor for his “anti-communist propaganda”. His terse comments were made at a public rally in Kannur, shortly after the Governor accused him of reneging on his assurance to refrain from acts that would “prejudice the interest of the office of the Chancellor”.
In his letter, the Governor instructs the university to nominate a representative of the Senate on the selection committee within September 26. However, the university has decided to seek legal opinion on the issue, sources said.
The process of selecting the next Vice Chancellor to succeed V.P. Mahadevan Pillai, whose tenure will end on October 24, has been embroiled in controversy. The Governor had on August 5 broken with established conventions to constitute a search committee without including the Senate’s nominee.
He notified the panel by including his and the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s nominees, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Director Debashis Chatterjee and Central University of Karnataka Vice Chancellor Battu Satyanarayana respectively.
The unprecedented move was made a few weeks after Kerala State Planning Board vice chairperson V.K. Ramachandran, who was chosen by the Senate as its nominee for the selection process at a meeting on July 15, declined to accept the responsibility citing personal reasons.
This had been widely viewed as part of a strategy to facilitate the reforms proposed in the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that seeks to ensure greater leverage for the State government in the Vice Chancellor selection process.
The university Senate had also objected to the Raj Bhavan move to “unilaterally” constitute the selection panel, claiming it violated the Kerala University Act, 1974 and legally untenable.
