SC order reignites VC appointment dispute, Guv reappoints his picks, CM calls it offensive

Thiruvananthapuram: The Supreme Court order on July 30 seems to have been interpreted differently by the Governor and the government. 

The order prompted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to initiate a correspondence with Governor Rajendra Arlekar on July 31 (Thursday) evening, urging him to initiate steps to appoint permanent vice chancellors for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology. The Chief Minister's letter also sought an appointment with the Governor for two cabinet ministers to discuss the issue.

The Governor's response (on Friday, August 1) came like a rebuff. The Raj Bhavan issued two notifications reappointing K Sivaprasad and Ciza Thomas as the temporary VCs of the Technological University and the Digital University, respectively. The notifications, the Raj Bhavan said, were issued in compliance with the July 30 SC order. 

It was on July 14 that a two-judge bench of the High Court had struck down their appointments as "not sustainable in law". 

Soon after, the Chief Minister shot off a second letter to the Governor asking him to revoke the notifications. He said the appointments to the technological and digital universities were not done in accordance with the law. The CM said the Governor's move contradicted the "essence of the SC order".

"The order has clearly said that the Chancellor should take decisions in consultation with the government," the letter said, and added: "The persons appointed today were not part of the government's panel."

The Raj Bhavan has not yet responded to the letter. "If the CM's office says so, the letter must have come. But the Governor has not discussed it with us," a top aide of the Governor told Onmanorama.

Judgment for all
The fact is, the short seven-page July 30 SC order has enough in it to vindicate the stand of each side. When the CM encouraged the Governor to appoint permanent VCs to the two universities in cooperation with the state government, he was only reiterating the SC order. 

Here is what the July 30 order says: "All that we can say today, or rather request, Mr Jaideep Gupta, the learned counsel appearing for the State of Kerala, is to work out some mechanism in harmony with the Chancellor for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellors in both the universities. This should be the first step in the process. We expect the Chancellor also to extend his full cooperation and consider the suggestions at the end of the State Government too". 

The Governor's move to issue notifications reappointing K Sivaprasad and Ciza Thomas, ignoring the state government's reservations, cannot be considered arbitrary either. He was also empowered by the July 30 order. 

"We clarify that it shall be open for the Chancellor to issue two fresh Notifications for the purpose of continuing with the present Vice-Chancellors in accordance with Section 13(7) and Section 11(10) respectively of the two enactments for the appointment of Vice-Chancellors in both the Universities. Let the process start at the earliest," Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said in the order.

​Government vs Governor
The government now says that the notifications violated Section 13(7) and Section 11(10) of both the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Act, 2015, and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology Act, 2021.

Both these Acts say that in the event of a vacancy, the Chancellor can appoint the VC of "any other University" or "the pro-VC of this University" (where the vacancy has occurred) or the Higher Education secretary for a period of not more than six months.

But the section also says "recommended by the government". This is interpreted to mean that the appointment - whether a VC or pro-VC or Higher Education secretary- should be done at the instruction of the government. 

The government also argues that the appointed persons do not belong to any of the three categories. K Sivaprasad is professor, Department of Ship Technology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, and Ciza Thomas is senior joint director(rtd), Directorate of Technical Education. 

However, the Raj Bhavan said that the July 30 order specifically empowers the Governor "to issue two fresh Notifications for the purpose of continuing with the present Vice-Chancellors." It has latched on to the qualification "present".  

The government side argues that the next part of the same sentence in the order will reveal that it was not a carte blanche that the SC granted the Governor, but a conditional directive. "Even though it says the Chancellor can issue notifications, it also adds that it should be done in accordance with Section 13(7) and Section 11(10) of the two Acts," a senior officer in the Chief Minister's Office said. "By ignoring the names submitted by the government and also picking candidates who do not fit the description of temporary VCs as stated in the Acts, the Governor has violated these sections, and therefore his move offends the SC order," the source said.