The Kerala High Court on Friday upheld a government order issued at the instance of a search committee headed by the Chancellor prescribing University Grants Commission (UGC) qualifications for candidates applying to the post of Calicut University Vice Chancellor.
Justice K. Vinod Chandran while dismissing a writ petition challenging the order observed that the government had the power to prescribe UGC qualifications for the post of Vice Chancellor.
Petitioner’s contention
The petition was filed by P. Alassankutty, a college teacher in Malappuram.
He argued that the university Acts or laws did not provide for qualification as prescribed in the notification. It was beyond the power of the search committee.
Opposing the petition, the government, in an affidavit, said that the search committee constituted by the Chancellor had the power to prescribe UGC qualifications for selection of Vice Chancellors.
The notification prescribing the qualifications was issued because the University Act was silent on the mode of procedure to be adopted by the search committee for selection of Vice Chancellors.
The notification invited nominations from candidates with the qualification of minimum 10 years of experience as professors in the university system or 10 years experience in equivalent position in a reputed research and academic administrative organisations and with qualification prescribed by the UGC.
The government had said that it had received several complaints in the past that persons who had been appointed as Vice Chancellors of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kannur University, and the Cochin University of Science and Technology had never held the post of professor and did not have the UGC-prescribed qualifications.
UGC letter
The government had also received a letter from the UGC requesting it to ensure that all the appointments to Vice Chancellors’ posts were made in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Regulations of UGC as the appointments of Vice Chancellors had become a subject of widespread criticism.
It was within the powers of the search committee to adopt the UGC regulations, the letter said.
The affidavit said that, in fact, the Calicut University Act had vested the search committee with the powers to decide the mode of appointment of Vice Chancellor in the university.
University Act did not provide for qualification: petitioner
Govt. had received complaints that VCs did not have prescribed qualifications
