No more tussle, VC appointments approved; Supreme Court congratulates Governor and Chief Minister

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court expressed happiness over the appointment of permanent Vice Chancellors in digital and technical universities, thus putting an end to the Governor-Chief Ministerial tussle on the matter.

The government expressed its opinion that the Governor should not have issued the appointment notification while the matter was under consideration by the Supreme Court, but the court did not take it at face value.

As per the court's order

The court expressed happiness when the Governor and the government informed that they had appointed the VCs from the panel prepared by the Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia Committee.

It was also pointed out that this case is an example of how effective the timely and decisive intervention of the Supreme Court can be in protecting the rights of citizens.

The bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan also reminded both parties of the reasons the court took such a stance.

The failure to reach a consensus between the Governor and the government led two universities to function without VCs for a long time. The court was concerned about the difficulties of students, parents, teachers and employees. They were the real ones affected in the face-to-face confrontation between Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The Governor and government were congratulated for respecting the court's stand. Thanks also to the Dhulia Committee. Attorney General R. Venkataramani appeared for the Governor and Adv. Jaideep Gupta appeared for the government. The court congratulated both of them for working on ways to end the series of events on a happy note.

The Attorney General said that the Governor had invited the Chief Minister to the Lok Bhavan. The Supreme Court expressed hope that the two would hold such meetings in the future in the public interest. The government's lawyer said that if it were not for the timely intervention of the court, there would not have been a consensus. Dr Ciza Thomas was appointed as the VC of the Technical University, and Dr Saji Gopinath as the VC of the Digital University.