Outgoing Governor Sheila Dikshit has appointed Babu Sebastian, director of the State Institute of Education Technology (SIET), Vice Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University.
The Governor made the appointment from a panel of three names proposed by the three-member Search Committee on Friday. The committee, chaired by Chief Secretary E.K. Bharat Bhushan and comprising Balram, director, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Benny Behanan, MLA, had also proposed the names of Sabu Thomas, head, Department of Nanoscience, Mahatma Gandhi University, and Prasanna Kumar, head, Department of Geology, University of Kerala. Mr. Sebastian is understood to have come into the panel as a nominee of the Kerala Congress (M) and his name was proposed by Mr. Behanan as part of a political understanding in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), which had decided to allot the post of Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gan dhi University to the KC(M).
The pace at which the committee went about preparing the panel of three names and its acceptance by the Governor indicated that the UDF government wanted the posting to be made before Ms. Dikshit’s resignation as Governor was accepted by President Pranab Mukherjee. Ms. Dikshit had ordered removal of the last incumbent A.V. George following the finding that he did not have the qualifications required to hold the Vice Chancellor’s post.
Mahatma Gandhi University Teachers Association (MGUTA) had on Thursday appealed to the Governor and the government to strictly comply with the UGC Regulations in the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor given the ‘unsavoury controversies’ that had rocked the university for more than a year about the qualifications of the last incumbent and his eventual removal from the post.
