THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has sought an explanation from Kannur University Vice-Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran on the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of the chief minister’s private secretary, KK Ragesh, as associate professor in the Malayalam department in the university. The explanation has been sought on a complaint lodged by the Save University Campaign Committee (SUCC), a whistleblower collective.
On Friday, the governor arbitrarily constituted a search committee for finding a new vice-chancellor of Kerala University. Defending the decision, Khan told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday that he only acted in accordance with the law. “Rules stipulate that a search committee needs to be formed three months ahead of the tenure of a VC ends,” said the governor.
The tenure of incumbent VC V P Mahadevan Pillai comes to an end in October. He said the UGC has already conveyed to the chancellor the name of its nominee but Kerala University hasn’t suggested any name. Hence, he had constituted a two-member committee comprising IIM-Kozhikode director Prof Debhashis Chatterjee as the chancellor’s nominee. Prof Battu Satyanarayana, Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Karnataka, is the UGC nominee.
Interestingly, both decisions by the governor followed reports that the government is gearing up to frame an ordinance to curtail his powers in VC appointment.According to sources, if the chancellor strictly goes by law, the appointment of Priya Varghese will be declared illegal. As per UGC norms, an applicant to the associate professor post requires a minimum of eight years of experience of teaching and/or research in an academic/research position equivalent to that of an assistant professor in a university, college or accredited research institution/industry. “Priya Varghese was granted permission to attend the interview after taking into consideration her three years’ research period as teaching experience. This is against the UGC norms,” said R S Sasikumar, chairman, SUCC.
In its petition, SUCC pointed out that the interview board at Kannur University had sidelined three senior professors who had better qualifications and experiences than Priya Varghese who had only three years of teaching experience. She was granted first rank in the interview. Prior to her three years’ stint in Kerala Varma College, Priya Varghese had served in the students service director post in Kannur University and as assistant professor on contract basis which was considered by the interview board as teaching experience. But, this is against the UGC norms, alleged SUCC.