In a significant move, the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the order of the High Court of Kerala regarding the reappointment of Dr Gopinathan Ravindran as the Vice Chancellor of Kannur University.
The apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, quashed the re-appointment due to “unwarranted interference by the state government” and held that the appointment is vitiated since there was interference from the state government.
It set aside the judgements of the single and division bench of the Kerala High Court upholding the reappointment.
Earlier, Kannur University senate member Dr Premachandran Keezhoth and academic council member Shino P Jose approached SC questioning the re-appointment of Raveendran.
The reappointment of Kannur University VC Gopinath Raveendran was a major issue between the state government and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.
The bench said it is the chancellor who has been conferred with competence under the law to appoint or reappoint the vice chancellor.
“No other person, even the pro-chancellor or any superior authority can interfere with the functioning of the statutory authority,” it held.
Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had given reappointment to the VC, but he came out and said that it was only on the insistence of the government and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Governor had said in a release then that there was communication from the higher education minister for the reappointment.
On February 23 last year, a division bench of the Kerala High Court dismissed an appeal against a single judge order upholding the reappointment of Ravindran as vice chancellor. It was done in accordance with the law and that he was not “an usurper to the post”, it said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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