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SC verdict on Kannur university V-C a setback to guv: CM
The top court criticised the governor stating that he as chancellor abdicated or surrendered the statutory power of reappointment, rendering the entire decision-making process bad
Kochi: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed on Friday that the Supreme Court verdict of quashing the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as the vice-chancellor of Kannur University was a setback to the governor, not the state government.
The top court on Thursday had ruled that the chancellor’s decision to reappoint Ravindran to the V-C’s post stood vitiated by the influence of extraneous considerations or in other words by the ‘unwarranted intervention’ of the state government. The court also criticised the governor stating that he as chancellor abdicated or surrendered the statutory power of reappointment, rendering the entire decision-making process bad.
At a press conference as part of the ongoing ‘Nava Kerala Sadas’ in Shoranur in Palakkad district, CM Vijayan told reporters, “The SC has found that no existing UGC rules regarding the reappointment of the V-C have been violated. The judges have said in the ruling that the chancellor’s stance is perplexing.”
“The chancellor is the appointing authority who reappointed Gopinath Ravindran as the V-C of Kannur University. He himself tells the court that his decision was against the UGC rules. But the honourable SC corrects him. Even after the ruling, the governor continues to say the reappointment was illegal. This is a strange position,” the CM said.
The CM said that the letters written by the higher education minister, who is the ex-officio pro-chancellor of Kannur University, to the chancellor are being interpreted as external pressure. “How can correspondence between two authorities functioning under the same law be seen as external pressure?” the CM asked.
“There has been no move on the part of the state government to take away any right of the chancellor to make his own decision. The severe setback the Chancellor has received from the Supreme Court is a consequence of his misrepresentation of facts. This can only be seen as a setback to the efforts to make it appear as if there was external pressure from the state government...some sections of the media are spreading the propaganda that the verdict is a setback to the state government. One needs to just read the judgment of the Supreme Court to understand the truth behind the propaganda,” the chief minister said.
On Thursday, hours after the SC verdict, the Governor had alleged that the office of the chief minister pressured him to reappoint Ravindran as the vice-chancellor of Kannur University in 2021.
