KOCHI: The state government on Saturday reconstituted the governing council of Maharaja’s College (Autonomous), Ernakulam, appointing former High Court judge Justice P S Gopinathan as its chairman, a move that has triggered reactions in the backdrop of the long-running dispute involving the Maharaja’s College Old Students Association (MCOSA).
As per the government order issued on July 18, Justice Gopinathan has been nominated as the governing council’s chairman. S Pappachan, founder and CMD of Lifeline Hospital Group, has been nominated as the industrialist representative, while Dr A Vijayakumar, emeritus professor, Department of Mathematics, CUSAT, has been included as the external educationist nominee.
Prof Anitha M N of the Department of Commerce and Prof Vinod Kumar Kallolickal of the Department of History have been nominated as the teachers’ representatives. The council will also comprise the principal’s nominee, Nitha M, joint secretary, Higher Education Department, as the state government nominee; the principal as member secretary, a representative nominated by Mahatma Gandhi University, and the administrative assistant of the college as the administrative staff representative.
The order directed the director of collegiate education to complete the reconstitution after obtaining the university nominee from Mahatma Gandhi University. The reconstitution brings the tenure of the existing governing council, headed by retired Additional Director of Collegiate Education Dr K N Krishnakumar, to an end.
T Jayachandran, an alumnus of the college, described the development as “poetic justice of time.” Referring to the 2024 eviction of MCOSA from its office, he alleged that those who forcibly took over the association’s office could never have imagined that its president would one day head the governing council.
