SC agrees to constitute search committee for V-Cs’ appointments in APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Digital University Kerala

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to step in to resolve the impasse between the Kerala Governor, who is also the Chancellor of universities, and the State government over the formation of a search committee for the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Digital University Kerala (DUK).

A Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan said it would appoint the search committee.

It asked the State and the Governor to provide, by August 14, four names each for inclusion on the five-member search panel. The court would select four names for the search committee from both lists. The fifth member of the search committee would be nominated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Justice Pardiwala said neither the Governor nor the State should insist on appointing interim V-Cs.

“Our endeavour is to appoint regular V-Cs. Today the entire problem is with the constitution of a search committee. We will help you out. We will constitute a search committee, which would give an opinion as to who are fit enough to be V-Cs. Then, you (Chancellor-State Governor would sit in consultation with the State government and select one for the digital university and another for the technology university,” Justice Pardiwala addressed Attorney General R. Venkataramani, appearing for the Chancellor-Governor.

Mr. Venkataramani said the Governor had only appointed interim V-Cs from serving V-Cs of other universities. “We had done nothing wrong,” the top law officer submitted.

He was referring to how the Kerala High Court had quashed Chancellor’s appointment of temporary V-Cs to the universities without consulting with the State government.

“This is not a power struggle. This is a federal issue. We have an underlying common culture in this country. But every State is very different. So, therefore, education is on the Concurrent List. The Chancellor is trying to ensure there is no whiff of Kerala in his appointments. Like this, the federal nature of the process would get diluted,” senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and advocate CK Sasi, appearing for Kerala, submitted.

Mr. Gupta said the “unilateral” appointment of interim V-Cs for six months by the Chancellor was in breach of Section 13(7) of the Technological University Act. The provision mandated that interim V-Cs should be appointed only on the recommendation of the State government”.

Justice Pardiwala responded to Mr. Gupta’s submission by reading out the court’s July 30 order in the case, which said “in the event a vacancy of Vice-Chancellor arises the Chancellor may appoint a Vice-Chancellor of any other university or the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the university itself or the Secretary to the Government, Higher Education Department ‘as recommended by the government”.