Kerala High Court Allows VCs Of Universities To Continue Till Governor Passes Final Order Against Them After Show Cause Notice

In a special sitting held on Monday, the Kerala High Court granted relief to eight Vice Chancellors of Universities in Kerala, who were asked by the Chancellor of the Universities(the Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan) to resign today.The Court held that all of them could continue in their positions till a final order is passed by the Chancellor/Governor against them on the basis of the show-cause notice issued by the Chancellor to them today. The Court thus, set aside the the communications issued by the Chancellor asking the VCs of the Universities to resign vide its judgment dated 24.10.2022. The Court expressed reservations regarding the Governor's communication issued on October 23 which asked the VCs to resign today by 11 AM. The Court said that nobody can be asked to resign. "It does not require much judgments to say no one can be asked to tender resignation", a single bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran noted in the order. The bench took note of the fact the Chancellor issued show-cause notices to the petitioners today. This means that the relevance of the directions issued by the Governor yesterday is lost and that the Vice Chancellors are still in service.The Court also wondered how the Governor could have said that the Vice Chancellors will cease to be in office with effect from October 21 if he is of the opinion that their appointments were void ab-initio. The Court added that a proper enquiry and thought ought to have been invested, particularly when the petitioners had specific cases to their factual scenarios. The Court has left open all the contentions of the parties, including the argument that the Governor has no jurisdiction to initiate the action. BackgroundIt was on October 23 that the Governor, the Chancellor of the Universities, issued the direction to nine Vice Chancellors to tender their resignations by 11.30 AM today on the ground that their appointments were illegal. The Governor referred to the recent decision of the Supreme Court which set aside the appointment of Dr. MS Rajashree as the VC of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University on the ground that the Search Committee forwarded only one name to the Chancellor instead of a panel of three to five names. Quoting from the above decision, the Governor stated that the appointment of the VC will be void-abinitio if the search committee was constituted illegally.The Governor's direction was issued to (1) Dr VP Mahadevan Pillai, VC of University of Kerala, (2) Dr.Sabu Thomas, VC of Mahatma Gandhi University, (3) Dr. KN Madhusoodhanan, VC of Cochin University of Science and Technology, (4) Dr K Riji John, VC of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, (5) Dr.Gopinath Ravindran, VC of Kannur University, (6) Dr MS Rajashree, VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, (7) Dr.MV Narayanan, VC of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, (8) DR MK Jayaraj, VC of Calicut University and (9) Dr V Anil Kumar Thuncahthezhuthachan Malayalam University.Crux of legal arguments raised by petitioners.Before the High Court, these Vice Chancellors raised a contention that the Chancellor has no statutory power to direct the resignation of the Vice Chancellors. The Chancellor cannot act beyond the powers conferred on him by the relevant University Acts."...the Chancellor has no advisory jurisdiction or inherent general power to request the Vice Chancellors to resign from the post or to issue any power to declare the VC seeks to hold office based on a law laid down by the Supreme Court in the absence of any challenge directly to such appointments", the petition filed avers. During the hearing today, it was submitted by Senior Advocate P. Ravindran, on behalf of one of the VCs that, as per the provisions of the University Act, "the Chancellor can remove a Vice Chancellor only on grounds of misappropriation, or mismanagement of funds or misbehaviour by an order in writing", and added that the exercise of even these powers are subject to reasonable restrictions. The Senior Counsel submitted that what was interesting to note in this case was that the Chancellor had issued the show - cause notice after declaring the appointments of the VCs as void, and submitted that the said show cause notice was only an "afterthought". The Counsel further submitted that the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case relating to the VC of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University cannot be blindly applied against other VCs, without ascertaining the individual facts and circumstances.The Chancellor, by issuing the directive without affording an opportunity of hearing to the VCs, has violated the principles of natural justice, the petitioners submitted. On the pointed question of the Court as to whether the Chancellor has to remain a mute spectator when he comes to know that the appointment itself was wrong, it was submitted by the Senior Counsel Ravindran that, "The Chancellor is the appointing authority which can exercise only such of those...

Kerala High Court Allows VCs Of Universities To Continue Till Governor Passes Final Order Against Them After Show Cause Notice

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The Court observed that the Governor could not have asked the VCs to resign.

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