Kerala governor moves SC against CM’s role in VCs’ appointments

Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar -- who is also the Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala Digital University in the state -- on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking the exclusion of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from the process to select vice chancellors for the two state-run universities.

The Governor sought to emphasise that neither of the universities envisaged any role for the chief minister in the VCs’ selection process.

“The Chief Minister being the Executive Head of the State is connected with the number of government colleges, managed by the government and affiliated to the university. Therefore, as per UGC (University Grants Commission) Regulations he cannot have any role whatsoever in the appointment of vice chancellors,” the Governor submitted.

The Chief Minister’s involvement in the VCs’ selection process would amount to a person judging his own cause, which was barred under UGC Regulations, the Chancellor submitted.

In its August 18 order, the top court had appointed former Supreme Court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia as the chairperson of the committee for selecting VCs for the two universities and said that the Chief Minister had a role in the process.

However, the application filed by the Governor urged the top court to modify its August 18 order with regard to the role of the Chief Minister in the selection of VCs, contending that its directions in ‘State of West Bengal v Dr Sanat Kumar Ghosh and Others’ could not be applied to the two Kerala universities as the CM’s involvement would violate the principle against “a person judging his own cause,” a norm embedded in UGC Regulations.

The Governor also urged the top court to order inclusion of a nominee of the UGC chairman as a member in the search-cum-selection committee for the selection of vice chancellors.

Section 8 (1) of the Calcutta University Act, 1979, provided that there will be a role of the minister of the state in the selection process there, he submitted. “Since the minister is a part of the selection process in the appointment of vice chancellors in the state of West Bengal, this court made the Chief Minister a part of the said process," the Governor pointed out.

However, the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Act and the Kerala Digital University Act -- had no provision for having the minister for higher education or the state government as a part of the selection process for recommendation for appointment of VCs, he submitted.

“The Chief Minister being the executive head of the state is connected with the number of government colleges, managed by the government and affiliated to the university. Therefore, as per UGC Regulations he cannot have any role whatsoever in the appointment of vice chancellors,” the Governor submitted.

The Governor, however, clarified that he was not seeking modifications of the August 18 order with regard to appointment of Justice Dhulia as chairperson of the search-cum-selection committee tasked with finalising the VC appointments and had no objection to the judge heading the panel and that he was only opposed to the participation of the state government’s nominees.

The Governor said, “The panel of the names of selected candidates shall be submitted by the search-cum-selection committee to the Chancellor with the names arranged in their alphabetical order and the prerogative to select the vice chancellor will be with the Chancellor.”

As per UGC Regulations, the Chancellor has the prerogative to select the vice chancellor from the list submitted by the search committee, he submitted.