The Kerala High Court, on Tuesday, November 8, told Kerala Governor and Chancellor Arif Mohammed Khan, not to take any further action against the Vice Chancellors (VCs), till it disposes of the petition filed by the 10 VCs against the show cause notice issued by the governor. The court posted the case for November 17, and said that until then, he should not take any action. The governor had earlier sparked off a controversy by directing the VCs to tender their resignations citing adverse observations regarding the appointment process.
Witnessing heated arguments from the counsel of the governor and the VCs, the court pointed out to the VCs that if they have to continue, they have to adhere to the directions of the Chancellor. Incidentally, Arif’s counsel informed that all the 10 VCs have replied to the show cause notice and sought three days' time for a reply to be filed. After hearing both sides, the court directed the Chancellor not to take any decision till the court disposes of the petition of the VCs.
This situation arose soon after the Supreme Court, last month, set aside the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, located in the state capital. A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar had found that the search committee formed to pick the VC was not properly constituted and also that only one name was sent to the Governor as opposed to a list of names as is required as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations.
Latching on to it, the governor asked the Vice Chancellors of ten Universities to reply why action should not be taken against them. Angry over the development, the Pinarayi Vijayan government strongly rallied behind these VCs and gave them the nod to approach the Kerala High Court.
Seeing the gravity of the issue, the High Court also heard their plea on Deepavali day. After hearing the plea, the court had held that the letter issued by the Governor directing the VCs of all universities in Kerala to resign was no longer valid since the Governor himself later issued show cause notices to them, asking them to reply.