THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After months-long standoff, Governor Rajendra Arlekar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have finally reached a consensus on the appointment of vice chancellors (VC) to two universities.
The governor’s secretariat on Tuesday issued orders appointing Ciza Thomas as VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Saji Gopinath as VC of Digital University Kerala (DUK). Ciza Thomas and Saji Gopinath were the candidates preferred by the governor and the state government, respectively. The consensus comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest directive to the Dhulia committee to select VCs on its own.
Following the governor-government standoff, the Supreme Court had constituted search-cum-selection committees headed by Justice (Rtd) Sudhanshu Dhulia to shortlist VC candidates.
As per the court’s directive, the panel was to shortlist four or five names for each university. The CM was asked to recommend the shortlisted names in the order of his preference. However, the governor did not accept the names recommended by the CM — C Sathish Kumar for KTU and Saji Gopinath for DUK.
Final decision taken at governor-CM meet
The governor’s preferred candidates were Ciza Thomas and Priya Chandran, respectively.
On December 11, the SC reviewed the development and directed the Dhulia committee to submit a final recommendation. The committee was asked to consider the CM’s letter and the Governor’s reply, and pick one final name for each university. The court directed the committee to submit its report on December 17 so that the matter would be heard the next day.
As the governor and government were wary over the committee’s selections, both camps agreed for a consensus. The final decision was taken at a meeting between the CM and the governor at the Lok Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
According to the Lok Bhavan, the decision will be conveyed to the Dhulia committee.