Technology University VC: Governor withdraws search committee notification

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The governor has withdrawn the search committee notification for the appointment of technical university vice chancellor. The Supreme Court order states that no one related to the varsity should be there in the search committee. That is why the Governor withdrew the Search Committee notification and asked AICTE for a new representative.

The search committee was formed on the 29th with Professor Kshiti Bhusan Das, former VC Dr P Rajendran and VSSC Director Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair as members. In this the VSSC Director, who is the representative of AICTE, is an ex-officio member of the Board of Governance of the Technical University.

Meanwhile, the government had also formed a search committee for the appointment of technical VC with CUSAT Ex-Vice Chancellor Dr KN Madhusudhan (Technical University Representative), Madras IIT Prof T Pradeep (Higher Education Council Representative), Jharkhand Central University Vice Chancellor Prof Kshithi Bhushandas (UGC Chairman Representative), CUSAT VC Prof PG Sankaran, MG University Former VC Prof Sabu Thomas (both government representatives) as members. The government has also included UGC representative Professor Kshiti Bhusan Das, who was in the Governor's notification, in the search committee.

With the Governor withdrawing the notification, the government will soon issue a newspaper advertisement inviting applications for the appointment of VC. The government may also form a search committee for the appointment of the Malayalam Varsity VC. The Malayalam and Technical University Acts do not specify who should form the search committee. The government's search committee was formed using this loophole. The search committee announced by the governor of the Malayalam University consists of Dr Jhansi James and Prof Battu Satyanarayana.

The VC appointment panel is to be submitted by a three-member committee comprising representatives of the Chancellor, the UGC and the University. It is the governor who should appoint the VC from this. The varsities are not providing the representative, despite the governor requesting more than a dozen times. This is as per government directive. A search committee consisting of academic experts was constituted excluding the Senate/Syndicate representative.

Governor is the authority

The Supreme Court has ordered that the appointment of VC should be made by the Chancellor and it will be final. In the case of Kerala University, the High Court had ordered that if the Senate does not appoint a representative to the search committee, the governor can take action on his own. 12 varsities do not have a permanent VC.