Governor Arif Mohammed Khan is ready with a list of senior professors who may be given charge of the Vice Chancellors once he decides to cancel the appointment of the existing Vice Chancellors of State universities.
The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the State universities, has collected the names of senior professors who has a minimum of 10 years of experience as per the norms prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for appointment of Vice Chancellors.
The list includes around 10 names from each university, according to those close to the development at the Governor’s office.
Nine Vice Chancellors had been told to submit their reply to the show cause notice issued by Mr. Khan by 5 p.m. on November 3 as their appointment was “contrary to the UGC regulations and as such is bad in law/illegal and void ab initio”.
The Chancellor had issued the notices after the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of M.S. Rajasree as Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University holding that it was made in violation of the UGC regulations.
The deadline set for the Vice Chancellors of Digital University Kerala and Sree Narayana Guru Open University ends at 5 p.m. on November 4. Raj Bhavan had given Mohanan Kunnummal, Vice Chancellor of the Kerala University of Health Sciences, the additional charge of Kerala University following the completion of the tenure of V. P. Mahadevan Pillai as Vice Chancellor.
It is learnt that the Governor is likely to turn down the recommendation by the government to entrust Ishita Roy, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, with the charge of the Vice Chancellor of the technological university as she is already holding additional charge of Kerala Agricultural University.
After Dr. Rajasree demitted office, the government had recommended the name of Saji Gopinath, Vice Chancellor of Digital University, to hold the additional charge. However, the Governor had refused to accept it.
He is likely to hand over the charge of Vice Chancellor of the technological university to an eligible person soon, according to the office of the Governor.
