THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Governor has intervened to block the Kerala government’s move to appoint the Vice-Chancellor of the Veterinary University under provisions of a bill previously rejected by the President of India. The government had scheduled a meeting of the search committee for the 15th, but the Governor wrote to the Centre, requesting that representatives from the UGC and the Agriculture Council not be sent. Following this, the meeting was postponed as per the government’s direction.

The government had formed a five-member search committee bypassing the Governor and without his representative. If the Central representatives withdraw, the committee becomes invalid. Furthermore, the term of the search committee, constituted in October, has also expired.

The plan was to hold the meeting in Thiruvananthapuram and present a panel of VC candidates to the Governor. Air tickets had already been arranged for the Central representatives. However, with the bill being rejected by the President, the Governor reportedly informed the Centre that the amended law held no legal validity and that the government had formed the committee using powers it did not possess. This led to the withdrawal of the representatives.

Though the Supreme Court has ruled that the Governor must act on the advice of the state government, in this case, the Governor could reject the panel as the formation of the search committee itself was legally invalid. This prompted the government to backtrack.

As per the current law, it is the Governor’s responsibility to form the search committee. University statutes mandate that a representative of the Governor must be included in the committee. Ignoring this, the government formed a search committee comprising Prof. Neelima Gupta (UGC representative), Dr. B. Iqbal (university representative), Prof. P. Rajendran (government representative), Prof. Raman Sukumar (Higher Education Council representative), and Dr. Raghavendra Bhatta (ICAR representative).

Prof. Neelima Gupta’s name was originally submitted by the UGC on the Governor’s request. The same name was again forwarded by the government. The Governor’s stance is that the UGC was misled into approving the representative. However, the government stated it postponed the meeting to avoid worsening relations with the Governor.

Government's repeated tactic:

• According to university laws, Senate/Syndicate representatives in search committees are mandatory. The Governor’s committees did not include such representatives.
• In response, the government created its own search committees instead of accepting the Governor’s. Most of these moves ended up in legal disputes. Currently, 13 universities in Kerala do not have Vice-Chancellors.
• The Supreme Court has ruled that the Chancellor (Governor) holds the final authority in Vice-Chancellor appointments.