Willful omission on part of varisites: Kerala Governor defends decision to constitute Vice-Chancellors selection panels

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], June 29 : Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Saturday defended his action of constituting search committees to select Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) for six State-run universities without their nominees, saying that his decision is in accordance with the court order and there was "willful omission" on the part of the university authorities.
"Since last year, there has been willful omission on the part of the university authorities, despite repeated reminders. Your channels and newspapers have reported they were under instruction not to send their representatives . So if they are not doing their duty, they should not stop me doing my duty," Khan told reporters here.
"I have waited for a long time. I have constituted the committee. Now, I am not going to speculate. I have done my duty very well... In the last judgement of the court, it is clear that within a month, the university authorities have been directed to send their representative. And then the later part of the judgment said that if the university authorities fail to send their representative, the chancellor shall go ahead in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the UGC regulations," the Governor said.
Despite directives from Governor Khan, who serves as Chancellor of the universities, the decision-making bodies of almost all universities, predominantly comprising LDF-backed members, had declined to nominate their representatives to the committees.
The decision, aimed at ensuring a transparent and merit-based selection process, was disclosed in a notification issued by the Kerala Raj Bhavan on Friday.
The universities involved in this process are Kerala University, Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU), Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University.
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath will serve as the Convener of the Committee for Kerala University. He will be joined by Prof Battu Satyanarayana, Vice Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka, and a nominee of the UGC and the Chancellor, who is yet to be announced.
For Mahatma Gandhi University, the search committee members are KRS Sambasiva Rao, former Vice Chancellor of Mizoram University and Anandharamakrishnan, Director at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.
The search committee for Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies includes Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor of Central University of Jammu, PK Abdul Azis, former Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology and Aligarh Muslim University, and JK Jena, Deputy Director General (Py Science), ICAR, Pusa.
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University's search committee comprises Prof. Kshiti Bhushan Das, Vice Chancellor of Central University of Jharkhand, Prof P Rajendran, former Vice Chancellor of Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, and S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
For Kerala Agricultural University, the committee members are CV Jayamani, former Professor at Cochin University of Science and Technology, Prof. Alok Kumar Rai, Vice Chancellor of University of Lucknow, and Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
The search committee for Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University includes Dr. Jancy James, former Vice Chancellor of Central University of Kerala and Mahatma Gandhi University, and Prof. Battu Satyanarayana, Vice Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka. The positions of Vice Chancellors in these universities became vacant following the Supreme Court's annulment of the appointment of M S Rajasree as the Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.