Number of universities without a head increased to 8

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the High Court quelling the search committee formed by the Governor without a Senate representative, for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor and the tussle between the government and the Governor over the formation of the committee, the number of universities without a head has increased to eight.

Kerala, Kalamandalam, Agriculture, Technology, Malayalam and Fisheries Varsities do not have VC as of now. CUSAT VC KN Madhusudhanan will complete his tenure in April and MG VC Prof Sabu Thomas will complete his in May. VC appointments can take long time. This will affect the students as interim VCs cannot take policy decisions.

The higher education department claims that the governor has only the power to appoint the VC and the government will do the job of inviting applications and forming a panel. When a letter was sent asking for the Governor's representative to the search committee set up by the government in the Malayalam Varsity, the Governor asked under what authority. The Governor is highlighting the Supreme Court's order that the government should not interfere in the appointment of the VC. But since Senate representation on committees is mandatory under the University Act, the governor's search committees without that will not stand.

The High Court quashed the search committee formed without a Senate representative for the appointment of Kerala VC. With this, the governor froze the process of formation of Malayalam, CUSAT and MG search committee. UGC representatives to all three committees were immediately allowed. The Governor's move was to form a search committee comprising representatives of the Chancellor and the UGC and later include representative of the Senate.

Governor's argument
The appointing chancellor is the one who has the power to constitute the search committee. How can the government set up a search committee when the pro-chancellor of universities is the minister of higher education? The search committee should not be affiliated with the varsity.

Government position

As per UGC Regulation 2018, only UGC representative is mandatory in the search committee. The government can form a search committee as it does not specify the number or composition of members. The High Court has ruled that the Governor has no power to form the committee.