Kannur University Senate elects Prof Adat to VC search panel; he quits within hours to stall Governor

Kannur: The Left-dominated Senate of Kannur University on Monday elected Prof Dharmaraj Adat, a former Vice-Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, as its nominee to the Search-cum-Selection Committee for appointing a new Vice-Chancellor. However, within hours of his election, he resigned, as part of an LDF strategy, dashing hopes that the university would finally get a regular Vice-Chancellor ahead of the Assembly elections.

Kannur University has not had a regular Vice-Chancellor since November 30, 2023, when the Supreme Court quashed the reappointment of Prof Gopinath Raveendran, citing government interference in the process.

Payyannur MLA T I Madhusoodanan, who proposed Prof Adat's name at the special Senate meeting, told Onmanorama the resignation was in line with the LDF's continuing opposition to the composition of the three-member selection panel by the Governor. The other two members of the panel are nominees of the Governor and the University Grants Commission (UGC), a structure the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) argues tilts the process in favour of the BJP-led Union government.

Ten of Kerala’s 14 state universities currently do not have regular Vice-Chancellors, largely due to the prolonged standoff over the constitution of search committees.

When contacted, Prof Adat said his name had been proposed without consulting him. He now serves as the Ombudsman of the University of Kerala and is considered close to the CPM. Madhusoodanan said that the disagreement with Chancellor Rajendra Arlekar over Vice-Chancellor appointments remains unresolved, and Prof Adat's resignation was part of the LDF's strategy to hamper the process. "His resignation is what we wanted," the MLA said.

UDF-leaning Senate members had proposed Prof Achuthsankar S Nair, former head of the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Kerala. Had the LDF not fielded its own candidate, the UDF nominee's election would have enabled the Governor to constitute the three-member search committee.

A pattern of resignations
This was the third time Kannur University's Senate met to nominate a member to the search-cum-selection committee. At the first meeting on July 19, 2024, LDF-affiliated members attempted to remove the agenda through a voice vote, and the session ended without electing a nominee. On October 4, 2025, the Senate elected Dr P P Ajayakumar, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala, as its nominee. His name was proposed by Mattannur MLA and CPM Central Committee member K K Shailaja. However, Prof Ajayakumar resigned five days later, once again stalling the process.

Prof Adat had earlier withdrawn under similar circumstances after being elected by the Senate of the University of Calicut on August 25, 2025, citing personal reasons.

UDF-affiliated Senate members said repeated special meetings that failed to achieve their purpose had imposed a heavy financial burden on the university. "Each time the jumbo Senate is convened, the university incurs expenses running into lakhs towards travel, accommodation and sitting fees of its members," said Dr Shino P Jose, a UDF Senate member.

The larger political backdrop
Ahead of Monday's meeting, UDF members had hoped that the LDF's nominee would not step down this time, particularly after Governor Arlekar appointed Dr Ciza Thomas as Vice-Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in December without resistance from the LDF. On the same day, Prof Saji Gopinath was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Kerala University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology.

In January, the Governor appointed Prof P Raveendran as the full-time Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calicut after the High Court intervened in the prolonged delay over constituting the search committee. Dr Jose hoped that Kannur University would be the next to get a regular vice-chancellor. When in charge, Vice-Chancellor Prof K K Saju did not chair Monday's meeting, UDF members thought it was to avoid a conflict of interest as it was a probable candidate.

However, Higher education activist R S Sasikumar, chairman of the Save University Campaign Committee, said that though the media portrayed the appointment of the two Vice-Chancellors as a deal or understanding between the Governor and the LDF, it was actually Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yielding to Governor Rajendra Arlekar in the case of the KTU. "The Governor insisted on appointing Ciza Thomas as Vice-Chancellor of the technological university, and there were allegations of financial irregularities at the Digital University. In the end, the Chief Minister gave way," he said. Till then, the CPM and its student outfit, SFI, were hostile towards Ciza Thomas.

But the larger conflict between the Governor and the LDF over university appointments remains unresolved, he said. He said the University of Calicut got a regular vice-chancellor because of the high court's intervention.

On October 30, the Calicut University Senate elected A Sabu, Member Secretary of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, as its nominee to the search-cum-selection committee. Prof Raveendran, then serving as in-charge Vice-Chancellor and a candidate for the post, did not chair the meeting. It was presided over by IUML's P Rasheed Ahammed. Sabu was widely expected to resign soon after his election. However, Rasheed Ahammed promptly forwarded the Senate's decision to the Governor, and the Governor constituted the search committee the same day.

The State government moved the High Court challenging the Governor's authority to constitute the committee. Sabu, too, approached the court, contending that his name had been proposed without his consent.

The High Court rejected the State government's objections but upheld Sabu's contention, directing the Senate to elect a fresh nominee within a month. On December 18, the Senate elected R Ramakumar, member of the Kerala State Planning Board and Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, as its nominee.

The Governor subsequently constituted the search committee. Based on its recommendation, Arlekar selected Prof Raveendran, widely seen as being closer to the Congress, as the Vice-Chancellor. "So there is clearly no love lost between the Governor and the LDF," Sasikumar said. Payyannur MLA T I Madhusoodanan echoed that view, reiterating that the LDF's position on Vice-Chancellor appointments has not changed.

The Kerala Legislature had passed amendments to the university laws curtailing the powers of the Governor, who serves ex officio as Chancellor of state universities, in appointing Vice-Chancellors. The Governor, however, withheld assent and forwarded the Bills to the President. No decision has been taken on them for nearly three years.

In November, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Governors cannot indefinitely withhold assent to Bills passed by State legislatures or use silence as a veto. However, the Bench did not prescribe a specific timeline for clearing Bills, overturning an earlier two-judge ruling that had sought to impose time limits.

As a result, the legal and political standoff has effectively returned to where it began, with the Governor continuing to exercise powers under the existing university laws to appoint Vice-Chancellors, and the LDF responding with procedural manoeuvres to counter him.