Thiruvananthapuram: The prolonged standoff between the Kerala government and the Governor over vice chancellor appointments ended on Tuesday with Dr Ciza Thomas being named vice chancellor of the Kerala Technological University and Dr Saji Gopinath appointed vice chancellor of the Digital University. Lok Bhavan issued the official notification formalising the appointments.

While Ciza Thomas was the Governor’s preferred candidate, Saji Gopinath was the chief minister’s choice. The state government, which had been locked in a confrontation with Ciza Thomas for nearly three years, eventually accepted the Governor’s stand on her appointment. The tenure of both vice chancellors will be four years.

The consensus was reached during the chief minister’s visit to Lok Bhavan to invite the Governor for the state government’s Christmas party. Earlier efforts to resolve the deadlock had failed. In the chief minister’s absence, ministers B Rajeev and R Bindu had conveyed the government’s position to the Governor, who declined to relent. The Governor had also conveyed his displeasure to the ministers over the chief minister not personally attending the discussions.

The breakthrough came ahead of Supreme Court scrutiny of the appointment process. On Friday, the court had asked the search committee headed by retired Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to specify the order of preference of candidates shortlisted in the panels. When the committee met online for the second time recently, its chairman was informed of the converging positions of the Governor and the chief minister. The Dhulia committee is scheduled to submit its report to the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The rift between the government and Ciza Thomas dates back to her appointment as interim vice chancellor of KTU by former Governor Arif Mohammed Khan without the state government’s consent, after the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of Dr MS Rajasree as VC. From then on, Ciza Thomas became a persistent point of friction.

After her retirement from service, her pension benefits were withheld for nearly two years. She secured them only after approaching multiple legal forums, from the Administrative Tribunal to the Supreme Court. The government had also attempted to initiate disciplinary proceedings against her on the day of her retirement and repeatedly challenged her interim VC appointments in court. Following Saji Gopinath’s retirement after completing his term at the Digital University, Arif Mohammed Khan appointed Ciza Thomas as interim VC there as well, further escalating tensions.

Although Dr Ciza's name appeared in both panels for the Digital University and KTU submitted by the search committee in alphabetical order, the chief minister placed her last in the priority list forwarded to the Governor. He also submitted a detailed note opposing her appointment, alleging that she had tarnished the Digital University’s reputation, deliberately created administrative instability by dissolving a syndicate meeting while holding charge as Kerala University VC, and smuggled syndicate records during her tenure at KTU.

The Governor maintained that Ciza Thomas, whose name featured in both panels, should be appointed at KTU, while Prof Priya Chandran of NIT Kozhikode should head the Digital University on the basis of academic merit. The chief minister, however, remained firm on appointing Saji Gopinath at the Digital University.

To avoid an impasse with the state government, the Governor ultimately agreed to appoint Saji Gopinath as the Digital University VC. With that appointment secured, the chief minister stepped back from the single-point opposition the government had maintained against Ciza Thomas over the past three years.