Chancellor has no unbridled powers in Senate nominations; Governor forgot rules, says court

KOCHI: The High Court quashed the governor's decision to nominate student representatives to the Kerala University Senate on his own. Justice CP Muhammad Niaz directed the chancellor to make a fresh nomination within six weeks after considering the petitioners as well.

The court also dismissed another petition against the government's nomination of education experts to the Senate. Criticizing the Governor's action, the court reminded the Chancellor that he had no unbridled powers over Senate nominations. The court said that the Chancellor made the nominations by ignoring the rules. Although the argument that there is no special procedure for nomination is correct, the rules should not be overruled, the court said. The rule that the nominees should have proven ability was not followed. People with more qualifications were not considered.

“An unguided, unfettered and unbridled power is foreign to the exercise of any power, constitutional or statutory. It is trite that even in the exercise of discretionary power, the requirements of reasonableness, rationality, impartiality, fairness and equity are inherent to such exercise and can never be according to any private opinion. Under such circumstances, the nominations made (by the Chancellor) are to be interfered with and accordingly, they are quashed,” the court said.