THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Rajendra Arlekar has re-appointed K Sivparasad and Ciza Thomas as interim Vice Chancellors of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Digital University, Kerala (DUK), respectively.
According to separate notifications issued by the Raj Bhavan on Friday, both Sivaprasad and Ciza will exercise the powers and perform the duties of the office of the Vice Chancellor in the respective universities for a period of six months or till a regular Vice Chancellor is appointed, whichever is earlier.
The Raj Bhavan issued the notification after the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that it was open for the Chancellor to issue a fresh notification appointing interim Vice-Chancellors in both universities, but the period in any case cannot exceed six months.
Sivaprasad and Ciza, who were appointed by former Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, had stepped down on July 14 after a division bench of the High Court upheld a single judge's order invalidating their appointments. Governor Rajendra Arlekar had approached the apex court against the High Court verdict is that the appointment of interim VCs should only be from a panel of names submitted by the government.
Even though the State government had submitted a panel of three names each for the appointment of interim vice chancellors in both universities, the Governor turned it down and went ahead with the reappointment of Sivaprasad and Ciza.