The Kerala High Court on Friday ordered that the Chancellor’s orders declaring ab initio void the appointments of M.V. Narayanan and M.K. Jayaraj as Vice-Chancellors of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit and Calicut University respectively and directing them to vacate their posts shall not be given effect till March 18.
Justice Mohammed Nias C.P. passed the order when the writ petitions filed by the Vice-Chancellors challenging the Chancellor’s orders came up for hearing.
According to Mr. Narayanan, he was eminently suitable for the post of Vice- Chancellor. The Chancellor was making use of every opportunity to defame the administration of the universities because of his strained relationship with the government.
In fact, his name had been recommended by members of the search/selection committee unanimously and unequivocally for the post of Vice-Chancellor after the selection committee assessed his candidature. The petitioner had never attempted to get to the office of the Vice-Chancellor by misrepresentation of facts or by playing fraud upon the search-cum-selection committee. The appointing authority had no power to review its own decisions.
Mr. Jayaraj, in his petition, contended that the Chancellor could remove a Vice-Chancellor only on charge of misappropriation or mismanagement of funds or misbehaviour. There was no such allegation against him. Besides, no declaratory power had been given to him. No power had been conferred on the Chancellor to review his own own orders.
In fact, the sole reason for issuing the order was that the selection/search committee had a non-academician, Chief Secretary, as member which was contrary to the University Grants Commission regulations. However, the UGC regulations did not say that Chief Secretary could not be a member of search/section committee. As a result, it did not vitiate the selection itself. Therefore, the order of the Chancellor was illegal.
