Universities spent Rs 1.12 crore to move petition against Kerala Governor’s decisions
Thiruvananthapuram: An estimated Rs 1.12 crore were spent by the universities to file petitions against the decisions of the Governor who also acts as the Chancellor. The Vice Chancellors (VC) had to move to court questioning the Governor’s action of revoking the action of revoking the appointments of VCs in various universities.
University employees usually approach the court on their own accord in cases related to appointments. This is also the case with government employees. However, none of the VCs spend their own money to fight cases. Instead, the university Syndicate is approached and the amount to fund legal fees is provided.
Kannur and KUFOS VCS appointed senior Supreme Court advocate K.K Venugopal to fight their case. Apart from this, Kannur university has spent Rs 8 lakh on Priya Varghese’s case, who is the Chief Minister’s private secretary, K.K Ragesh’s wife. Minister R Bindu provided the details regarding the case in response to the questions raised by Eldhose Kunnampilly in the Legislative Assembly.
The ‘Save University’ campaign committee has written to the Governor demanding that the amount paid for court proceedings be recovered from the VCs or the syndicate members who provided the money.
| Amount spent by VCs from University Fund | |
| Kannur VC Dr Gopinath Raveendran | Rs 69.25 lakh |
| KUFOS VC Dr Riji John | Rs 35.71 lakh |
| Calicut VC Dr P.K Jayaraj | Rs 4.25 lakh |
| KTU VC Dr M.S Rajashree | Rs 1.47 lakh |
| Malayalam University VC Dr P Anilkumar | Rs 1 lakh |
| CUSAT VC Dr K.N Madhusudanan | Rs 77,500 |
| Sree Narayana Open university VC Dr Mubarak Pasha | Rs 53,000 |