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passes a resolution requiring it before a candidate may be put forward for the vice chancellor search committee.
On Friday, the University of Kerala Senate stood by its position that the Governor should rescind the announcement creating a two-person search committee to choose the Vice Chancellor without incorporating the Senate’s choice.
In a special session, the LDF-controlled Senate adopted a resolution stating that, under the condition that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan retracted his notification, the Senate would elect a senator to the search committee.
The resolution had the backing of 50 senators and the opposition of 7. Three members chose not to cast a ballot. The resolution was deemed infructuous by the UDF members. The Governor’s expulsion of 15 Senate members prevented them from attending the meeting.
“Contrary to UGC rules”
In the resolution, it was said that the notification violated the rules set forth by the University Grants Commission and the Kerala University Act, and the Governor was advised to rethink the choice.
If the notification was withdrawn, the Senate meeting decided to revisit the choice made at its August special meeting. On Thursday, 63 members voted in favor of calling a special meeting on Friday.
K.H. Babujan, a member of the syndicate, claimed the notification broke Kerala University Act, 1974, Section 10(1), which mandates that the search committee have three members. There was no clause allowing for the creation of a committee with two members before the Senate nominee was included.
“Legal, not political,”
The problem, according to Mr. Babujan, was legal and not political. Legal action would be prompted if the Senate chose a member for the search committee based on the Governor’s notification (creating a two-member search committee without the Senate nominee).
The Senate had resolved in August to ask the Governor, who serves as the university’s Chancellor, to revoke the notification, but he had not answered. The Senate then met on October 11 to elect a member to the search committee, but no business could be done because a majority of the senators chose to abstain. As a result, the Governor withdrew 15 of the Senate nominees’ 17 names.
The Senate recently came under fire from the High Court for approving a resolution asking the Governor to revoke the notification, noting that the Senate knew the Governor was not required to take any action.
