New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to prepare a priority list for the appointment of Vice Chancellors to the Technical and Digital universities, and to submit it in a sealed cover by next Wednesday evening. A Bench, comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan, stated that an order appointing the Vice Chancellors will be issued on coming Thursday, based on this list.

The intervention comes after the Governor and the State Government failed to reach a consensus on the appointment of Vice Chancellors.

Earlier, a Search Committee, chaired by Justice Dhulia, had prepared a panel of candidates for consideration and handed it over to the Chief Minister. The names in the panel were listed alphabetically. From this panel, the Chief Minister prepared a priority order and forwarded it to the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the universities.

Government opposes only Ciza Thomas; others acceptable

The Kerala Government informed the Supreme Court that its objection is only to the appointment of Ciza Thomas as Vice Chancellor. Any other candidate from the panel may be appointed, the Government stated. Senior advocate Jaydeep Gupta and standing counsel C K Sasi, representing the State, argued that Ciza Thomas had brought disrepute to the university during her tenure as temporary Vice Chancellor.

Ciza Thomas cannot be excluded, says Governor’s side

On the other hand, Attorney General R Venkataramani and advocate Venkita Subramanian, appearing for the Governor, said that Ciza Thomas features in the panels of both the universities, and therefore cannot be excluded.

Meanwhile, the letter sent by the Governor to the Chief Minister was submitted to the Court on Thursday in a sealed cover by the Attorney General. The Bench, however, declined to open it.