THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In no mood to relent, the Kerala university has indicated that it would not implement Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s order withdrawing 15 members from the senate. Vice-Chancellor V P Mahadevan Pillai refused to issue a formal notification removing the members in the wake of the governor’s order. Pillai, whose term ends on October 24, wrote to the Raj Bhavan pointing out the ‘illegality’ of the order.
The vice-chancellor told the governor that the four heads of departments (HoDs) of the university had kept away from the meeting due to “official engagements”. It was earlier pointed out that there was no provision in the university act that empowered the governor to withdraw HoDs who are ‘ex-officio’ members of the senate.
“The vice-chancellor is delaying implementation of the governor’s order to facilitate the ousted members to approach court,” said a source who was privy to the developments. Though senate members expelled by the then Governor in 2011 and 2012 had approached court, the Raj Bhavan’s decisions on the matter were finally upheld, the source said.
The governor’s extraordinary move withdrawing 15 senate members nominated by him came after majority of the members abstained from a meeting called to propose a member to the search-cum-selection committee to choose the next vice-chancellor. The removal of two of the 15 members had also led to their automatic disqualification as syndicate members.
It is learnt the LDF government is firmly backing the ousted senate members and has pledged all support to ensure their reinstatement. The chief minister’s remarks on Tuesday terming their ouster as ‘illegal’ came in this context.
It was reportedly at the behest of the state government that the senate meeting on October 11 was “scuttled” to ensure that the governor does not get a nominee from the university body to the search-cum-selection committee.
In the October 11 senate meeting, only 13 members of the 91-member council turned up. The meeting was abandoned as a minimum quorum of 19 members were needed to conduct it. The governor was irked after he came to know that the LDF-backed senate members were present on the university campus, but did not enter the senate hall for the meeting.