The Supreme Court has warned the Kerala Government and the Governor that it will directly appoint Vice-Chancellors if their ongoing dispute continues. The Court stressed that only the “most meritorious” candidates must be selected without further delay.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it may step in and make the appointments itself if the Kerala Government and the Governor fail to end their ongoing dispute over choosing regular Vice-Chancellors for two state universities.
The Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan was hearing the case related to appointments for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.
The issue comes from a long-running conflict between the Kerala Government and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is the ex-officio Chancellor of state universities.
Because both sides could not agree earlier, the Supreme Court had appointed Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as an independent authority to shortlist suitable candidates.
During the hearing, Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Governor, informed the Court that the selection committee had suggested two names for each university and the Chancellor had approved them.
However, the State Government had objected to these names. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta appeared for the Kerala Government.
Justice Pardiwala asked both sides if they could show progress by Tuesday, December 9. He reminded them that the Court-appointed committee had earlier recommended four names for each post and said:
“If you work it out, that’s fine. If not, we will appoint.”
When the Attorney General started explaining the Chief Minister’s stand, Justice Pardiwala stressed the importance of cooperation and said that the “most meritorious” candidates must be selected.
The Bench then listed the case for Thursday, December 11, placing it at the top of the day’s schedule and clearly indicating that the Court would not allow any further delay in resolving the issue.
This dispute has seen multiple twists. On November 27, the Kerala Governor had approached the Supreme Court, saying that the Chief Minister had sent only “incomplete records” related to the appointment of Vice-Chancellors for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology. According to him, this made it impossible for him to act on the recommendations of the committee led by Justice (retired) Sudhanshu Dhulia.
In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court had sharply criticised the Kerala Governor for not taking timely action on Justice Dhulia’s report.
Earlier in September, the Attorney General had informed the Court about an application filed by Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar seeking the removal of the Chief Minister from the Committee responsible for appointing regular Vice-Chancellors of both universities.
Recently, the Governor again approached the Supreme Court seeking changes to its August 18 order concerning the appointment process.
He requested that the Chief Minister be excluded from the selection process, that a University Grants Commission (UGC) nominee be added to the search committee, and that the Chancellor should continue to have the power to choose from an alphabetical list of shortlisted candidates.
On August 18, the Supreme Court had appointed former judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the Chairperson of the Search and Selection Committee for selecting Vice-Chancellors for the two universities.
Before that, on August 13, the Court had said it would itself form a Search Committee since the State Government and the Chancellor could not arrive at an agreement.
Case Title:
The Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University v. State of Kerala & Ors.
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