Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday told Kerala Governor, and Chancellor, Arif Mohammed Khan, that till it disposes of the petition filed by 10 Vice Chancellors against the show cause notice issued by him against them, he should take no further action.
The court posted the case for November 17, and said that until then, he should not take any action.
As it witnessed heated arguments from counsel of Khan and the VCs, the court, at one point, intervened and said there should not be any washing of dirty linen in the court.
It also pointed out to the VCs that if they have to continue, they have to adhere to the directions of the Chancellor.
Incidentally, Khan’s counsel informed that all the 10 VCs have replied to the show cause notice and sought three days time for a reply to be filed.
After hearing both the sides, the court directed the Chancellor not to take any decision till the court disposes of the petition of the VCs.
This situation arose, soon after the Supreme Court, last month, set aside the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University, located in the state capital city.
A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar had found that the search committee formed to pick the VC was not properly constituted and also that only one name was sent to the Governor as opposed to a list of names as is required as per the UGC regulations.
Latching on to it, Khan asked the Vice Chancellors of ten various Universities to reply why action should not be taken against them.
Angry over the development, the Pinarayi Vijayan government strongly swung behind these VCs and gave the nod to them to approach the Kerala High Court.
Seeing the gravity of the issue, the High Court also played their responsibility well and heard their plea on Diwali day.
After hearing the plea, then it held that the letter issued by the Governor, directing the VCs of all universities in Kerala to resign was no longer valid since the Governor himself later issued show cause notices to them, asking them to reply.
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