Kerala Cabinet decided to bring in an ordinance to remove Governor Arif Mohammad Khan from the post of Chancellor. News agency ANI said in a tweet that the government is planning to bring in an expert in place of the Chancellor.
"Kerala government intends to replace the Governor as universities' chancellor through ordinance," said Minister R Bindu, as quoted by Economic Times.
Speaking to the media in Thiruvananthapuram, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took a dig at the state government for deciding to pass an ordinance against Governor. The Congress MP said, "An ordinance only becomes valid when the Governor signs it, so I find this slightly odd that the state cabinet will pass a resolution asking the Governor. Let's see whether he wants to do it."
He felt that the entire issue between the CM and the Governor has been unfortunate and bad. "This entire business between the CM & the Governor has been rather unfortunate, bad for the constitutional governance in the country & bad for the state. I hope they settle their differences soon," he added.
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Kerala HC Asks Guv To Not Take Action Against VCs
Earlier on Tuesday, the Kerala High Court asked the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the universities in the state not to take any action against the vice-chancellors who were given show-cause notices by him until the court hears the matter. Justice Devan Ramachandran gave three more days time to the chancellor to file his reply and posted the matter for further hearing on November 17.
Khan, as Chancellor of universities, had issued show-cause notices to VCs of 11 universities in the state against which the VCs' have approached the court claiming that the notice was illegal and void. Khan told the court that all the VCs have replied to his notice. The high court had on November 3 extended till November 7 the time for VCs to respond to show-cause notices sent to them by Khan.
The notices sought to know from the VCs why they should be allowed to continue in their posts, as their appointments were illegal as per a recent Supreme Court ruling.
On October 21, the top court quashed the appointment of the VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, saying that as per the University Grants Commission (UGC), the search committee constituted by the state should have recommended a panel of not less than three suitable people in the field of engineering science to the Chancellor but, instead it sent only one name.
Based on that, Khan called for the resignations of VCs whose names were the only ones recommended for appointment and also those who were selected by a committee of which the Chief Secretary of the State was a member, terming both as a violation of UGC regulations.
(With PTI inputs)