Vice Chancellors Appointments: SC To Wait For Expert Report Before Hearing Kerala Governor's Plea To Drop CM Pinarayi Vijayan From Panel

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked to wait for the report of former apex court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia before hearing the plea of Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar seeking the removal of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from a panel tasked to recommend vice chancellors (VCs) for two state universities.

The plea was mentioned by Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for Governor, before a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan.

The top law officer indicated urgency and asked the bench to take up the Governor's plea for hearing. Venkataramani said the question of who was the authority to appoint vice chancellors could create complications once the committee's recommendations were submitted.

"I have a very small request. These applications should not be seen as obstructing any process of Justice Dhulia in this matter. But a subsequent order passed by another bench has restored the Chancellor as the appointing authority," he said.

The attorney general was referring to an order of Justice Surya Kant-led bench in the West Bengal Governor-VCs dispute, where the court appointed former CJI U U Lalit to mediate.

The bench, however, recently modified a section of its order, clarifying that the Justice Lalit-led committee need not adhere to the order of preference provided by the West Bengal chief minister.

According to the attorney general, this modification effectively restores the role of Governor as Chancellor in the appointment process, raising questions about the Kerala panel's functioning.

"Should we not wait for the report of Justice Dhulia?" Justice Pardiwala asked, indicating that the court would take a holistic view only after receiving the committee's findings.

The bench continued, "Let the report come. We will work out the modalities. We will balance. the day it comes, we will look into the report and the modified order." The bench then deferred the matter.

Kerala Governor moved the top court seeking the exclusion of the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan from the selection process of Vice Chancellors for the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala Digital University.

Governor, who is also the Chancellor of both the state-run universities, said neither of the universities envisioned any role for the chief minister in the selection process.

The plea highlighted the role of the chief minister in the entire selection process for appointment of VCs for the two universities and referred to "State of West Bengal v. Dr Sanat Kumar Ghosh and Others" the directions of which had been applied in the present case.

Section 8 (1) of the Calcutta University Act, 1979 provides for the role of the minister of the state in the selection process there, the plea added.

"Since the minister is a part of the selection process in the appointment of Vice Chancellors in the State of West Bengal, this court made the Chief Minister a part of the said process," Governor said.

However, it pointed out the university enactments -- the A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University Act and the Kerala Digital University Act -- had no provision for having the minister for higher education or the state government as a part of the selection process for recommendation for appointment of VCs.

"Therefore, in the humble submission of the application the role of CM for selection of VCs as mentioned in the order dated August 18, may be modified by this court," the plea sought.

On August 18, the top court appointed former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the Chairperson of the committee for selecting vice chancellors in the two universities and said the CM had a role in their selection.

The plea, however, contended the chief minister's involvement would violate the principle against "a person judging his own cause," a norm embedded in the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations.

"The Chief Minister being the Executive Head of the State is connected with the number of government colleges, managed by the government and affiliated to the university. Therefore, as per UGC Regulations he cannot have any role whatsoever in the appointment of vice chancellors," the application said.

Governor said he was not seeking the modifications of the August 18 order with regard to appointment of former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as chairperson of the search-cum-selection committee tasked with finalising the VC appointments and "no objection" to the judge heading the committee.

The plea, however, said the Governor was opposed to the participation of nominees suggested by the state government.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)