Arif Mohammad Khan | Photo: PTI
New Delhi: The Kerala High Court on Friday cancelled the decision of Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan to dismiss 15 members of Kerala University. The dismissal order was issued in October 2022 in the capacity of Kerala University chancellor.
The HC, in an interim order had blocked Khan from making new appointments to the senate in the vacancies caused by the dismissal.
Last year, the governor informed the then vice-chancellor, PV Mahadevan Pillai that as chancellor, he "withdrew the pleasure" of allowing 15 members of the senate to continue in the committee. Reacting to this, VC PV Mahadevan Pillai informed the governor that there are 'illegalities' in his move and asked him to reconsider it. Following this, the governor himself issued an order of sacking the 15 senate members.
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Pillai, as well as chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, have pointed out that some of the members the governor ousted were ex-officio members of the body and he cannot remove them.
The ousted members challenged the decision in the court.
The issue between the ruling CPM-controlled university senate and the governor started with Khan ordering to constitute the search committee to find the next vice-chancellor of Kerala University. The chancellor formed the committee while the government was mooting changes to its format to give the state an upper hand in the process. The governor's decision to form the committee without waiting for the university to decide on its representative irked the government and the varsity. Some members supporting the government allegedly stayed away from senate meetings to make sure that the quorum was not met and hence its nominee to the search committee was not made. This irked the governor who subsequently dismissed 15 members from the committee.
The logjam regarding the VC search committee is not yet resolved. Health university vice-chancellor Dr Mohanan Kunnummal is bearing the additional charge of the university now.
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