VC appointment row: SC asks Kerala Guv to decide on Dhulia panel report by Dec 5

The Supreme Court on Friday strongly criticised Kerala Governor and Chancellor Rajendra Arlekar for failing to examine the Sudhanshu Dhulia committee report on the appointment of vice chancellors for two state universities, stressing that the report is not “an ordinary piece of paper” and requires a decision.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan directed the Governor to consider the report within a week and inform the court of his decision on December 5.

The order came after senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing the Kerala government, informed the court that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had forwarded his recommendations—based on the report of the Justice Dhulia panel—for appointing vice chancellors to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology. However, the Governor had yet to take any action.

The bench observed that Justice (retd) Dhulia had completed the task assigned to him under the court’s August 18 order and submitted his report, which the Chief Minister then sent to the Chancellor. The judges said the Chancellor was duty-bound to review it.

Responding to the Chancellor’s argument that certain related records were missing, the bench noted that the absence of supporting documents should not prevent the Governor from examining the report.

Justice Pardiwala remarked that the committee was formed with the agreement of all parties and emphasised that the Governor must take an appropriate decision based on its findings. During the hearing, the bench even instructed the Governor’s counsel to step out and obtain instructions on how soon a decision could be made.

When the counsel began raising additional issues, the court cut him off, stating: “This is not an ordinary piece of paper. A former Supreme Court judge has examined the issue. This is the law of the land. You are bound to look into it.”

"This matter was mentioned today by Mr Jaideep Gupta for the State of Kerala. In due deference to our order dated 18.08.2025, Hon'ble Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, former Judge of this Court, undertook the necessary exercise and has prepared a report accordingly. The report has been forwarded to the Chief Minister of the State. The Chief Minister in turn has forwarded the report to the learned Chancellor of the two Universities. It is expected of the learned Chancellor to now look into the report filed by the Committee headed by Justice Dhulia. Learned counsel appearing for the Chancellor would submit that the report has been received but not the records. We fail to understand why the non-receipt of the records is coming in the way for the purpose of looking into the report filed by the committee. In such circumstances, we now expect the learned Chancellor to take a decision in accordance with the report of the Committee. We may remind one and all that the Committee was appointed with the concurrence of all the parties," said the court. 

The Governor’s counsel asked for more time to seek instructions, and the court listed the matter for further hearing next Friday, noting the state government’s assertion that all relevant records had already been sent to the Chancellor.

At the outset, Gupta reiterated that despite receiving the Chief Minister’s recommendations, the Governor had taken no action. Justice Pardiwala questioned why the report had not been reviewed.

The counsel for the Chancellor said they had written to Justice Dhulia seeking records of the committee proceedings.

On September 2, the Governor approached the Supreme Court seeking to exclude the Chief Minister from the vice chancellor selection process, arguing that the university statutes did not assign any role to the Chief Minister.

Earlier, on August 18, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Dhulia to head a committee tasked with shortlisting candidates to break the stalemate between the Governor and the state government. Justice Dhulia retired from the Supreme Court on August 9.

On July 30, the court had urged both the Kerala government and Attorney General R Venkataramani—representing the Governor—to find a harmonious mechanism to resolve the dispute over vice chancellor appointments.

The Chancellor had approached the Supreme Court challenging a Kerala High Court division bench order concerning a petition against a single-judge ruling that set aside the November 27, 2024 notification appointing Professor K. Sivaprasad as vice chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.

The Kerala government had challenged that notification, saying that while it allowed the VC to remain in office “until further orders,” Section 13(7) of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Act, 2015 restricts such interim appointments to a maximum of six months in total.

(with Live Law inputs)