THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Opening a fresh battlefront with Arif Mohammed Khan, the state government has issued an order setting up a search committee to select a permanent vice-chancellor in APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU), bypassing the governor.
Conventionally, it is the governor as chancellor of state universities who constitutes the search-cum-selection committee.
As per a recent order issued by the higher education department, the five-member panel will have one person each nominated by the University Grants Commission (UGC), state higher education council and the KTU syndicate and two nominated by the state government.
The move is set to kick up a row as President Droupadi Murmu has withheld assent to a Bill seeking to expand the number of search committee members. The Bill was reportedly passed by the LDF government to curtail the governor’s powers and get an upper hand in the VC selection process in state universities.
Interestingly, the pro-LDF governing council of KTU had thwarted Khan’s attempts to constitute the search panel by refusing to provide its nominee. The government’s latest move is seen as an attempt to deliberately land the VC selection process in a legal tangle and postpone it until Khan’s term as Kerala governor expires in September.
As per the KTU act, the search committee comprises a member elected by the varsity’s board of governors (syndicate), a nominee of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the chief secretary. The Supreme Court had ruled that the panel was not in conformity with UGC regulations.
“Section 13(2) of the KTU Act, that prescribes who shall comprise of the search committee has become inoperative (in the wake of the SC order), and consequently, there is a legislative vacuum,” the government order said, justifying its move to constitute the search committee on its own.
The order said UGC regulations do not provide as to who should constitute the committee. It only stipulates that the panel members should not be connected with the university concerned or its colleges. “The names of the search committee members will be issued separately on receipt of the name of the UGC chairman’s nominee,” said the order.