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 RaveendranRs 69.25 lakh
KUFOS VC Dr Riji JohnRs 35.71 lakh
Calicut VC Dr P.K JayarajRs 4.25 lakh
KTU VC Dr M.S RajashreeRs 1.47 lakh
Malayalam University VC Dr P AnilkumarRs 1 lakh
CUSAT VC Dr K.N MadhusudananRs 77,500
Sree Narayana Open university VC Dr Mubarak PashaRs 53,000