Kerala Govt vs Governor: Reports suggest no breakthrough in VC appointment talks; final call likely with SC

Thiruvananthapuram: Efforts to resolve the standoff between the Kerala government and the Governor over Vice-Chancellor (VC) appointments collapsed after high-level talks in Thiruvananthapuram, pushing the issue closer to judicial intervention.

Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev and Higher Education Minister R Bindu met Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar at Lok Bhavan on Wednesday to reach a consensus on VC appointments to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Kerala University of Digital Sciences (DUK). The meeting lasted for over an hour but ended without agreement.

The talks were held a day before the deadline fixed by the Supreme Court of India, which had directed both sides to jointly select candidates from a panel prepared by a court-appointed committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge.

The court had clearly warned that it would make the appointments itself if the Governor and the state government failed to agree.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had recommended Saji Gopinath for DUK and C Satheeshkumar for KTU. The Governor backed different candidates: Dr Ciza Thomas and Priya Chandran.

The state government has been arguing that its nominees were more deserving as they appeared in the shortlist prepared by the Supreme Court-appointed committee. The court had earlier underlined the importance of the Chief Minister’s prerogative and advised the Governor to approach the court if he disagreed with the recommendations.

Sources in the government and at Raj Bhavan had already indicated that a compromise was improbable. The tension had intensified earlier when the government delayed pensionary benefits of Dr Ciza Thomas after she took charge as KTU’s in-charge VC against its wishes.

Despite this, both sides considered the meeting unavoidable to demonstrate to the court that efforts were made to reach consensus.
There were talks about persuading the Governor to withdraw support for Thomas, allowing an arrangement where the Governor’s nominee could lead DUK and the government’s choice could go to KTU. However, sources on both sides doubted such a settlement would be accepted.

What happened in the meeting

As expected, during the discussion, the Governor reportedly defended Dr Ciza Thomas. Sources said Governor argued that the government was fully aware of her merit and competence. He reportedly cited that she had earlier been nominated by the government to the committee that selected CEOs for Technopark and Infopark, had held leadership roles at KSPACE, ICFOSS and K-FON, had been part of the committee that selected a digital platform for the Tourism Department, and had served on the technical advisory committee and policy formulation subcommittee of the state IT department.

He also reportedly questioned why the government was opposing her appointment despite recognising her academic background and credentials.

The Governor reportedly also explained his objections to Saji Gopinath. He said detailed explanations, along with evidence and documents, had been shared with the Chief Minister. He added that he had not made these details public or presented them in court as he did not want to politicise the issue.

The state government maintained that VC appointments must be made only from the list submitted by the Chief Minister to the Governor in his role as Chancellor.

Ministers said the government had always attempted consensus but stated that details of the discussion would not be shared with the media and would instead be placed before the Supreme Court.

Court to take final call

The court has already made it clear it will directly appoint VCs if no agreement is reached. Even if a late consensus emerges, the final position is expected to become clear only when the matter comes up before the Supreme Court on Thursday.