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Following Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s decision to sack nine vice chancellors, the state government is looking at the legal possibility of removing governor as the chancellor of state universities. The government is considering various options and are looking at the bill passed by West Bengal in this regard.
Chancellors are responsible for appointment of vice-chancellors and takes other key administrative decisions. Earlier, in June, the West Bengal cabinet had approved the chief minister as the chancellor of the state-based universities. Previously, the governor was appointed as the chancellor of state government run universities.
Also read| Kannur University Syndicate Passes Resolution Against Kerala Governor, Call His Actions ‘Illegal’
The law empowered the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, to appoint 31 vice chancellors in state universities instead of the governor. The West Bengal state government had passed a bill in the Assembly to change the current law. To be implemented, the Bill had to get consent from the Governor before becoming an act.
This system was first proposed in 2010 by Punchi Commission, however, it caught heat last year amid tensions between the governor and Banerjee. There were earlier allegations that the state government was making appointments of vice-chancellors on its own, ignoring the chancellor (governor).
Similarly, the Tamil Nadu government also passed two bills in April — the Tamil Nadu University Law (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and Chennai University (Amendment) Bill, 2022. It included provisions to empower the state government to appoint vice chancellors, instead of the governor.
In 2021, Maharashtra government passed the Maharashtra Public University (Third Amendment) Bill, to change the process of the appointment of vice chancellors in state universities. In 2013, the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat state government removed the powers of the governor as the chancellor to appoint VCs. The bill got the governor’s assent in 2015 in the state.
The Kerala government is likely to take a similar move comes amid the ongoing face off between the government and the governor. Governor had issued show cause notice to vice chancellors of 11 universities. The CPIM state secretary M V Govindan had said that in many states in the governor is not the chancellor of the universities. In Kerala, it is so because of a state law and they are a looking at all legal and constitutional options.
The Kerala law minister, on Thursday, said, as per the existing law in the state, governor is the chancellor of the universities. The concerned ministry will prepare whatever is the need. We only look at the legality if anything is submitted by the concerned ministry.
Vice-chancellors of a total of nine universities of Kerala were asked to resign as well as 15 senate members were sacked by the governor’s office. Governor Khan had directed vice-chancellors of nine universities namely, the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kannur University, APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, University of Calicut, Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, to put in their resignation.
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