Supreme Court asks Kerala to share its names for V-C search panel with the Governor's counsel

The Hindu

10 hours ago

The Supreme Court on Thursday (August 14, 2025) asked Kerala government to share with the Attorney General of India R. Venkataramani, who is appearing for the State Governor, names shortlisted by it for constituting a search committee to zero in on prospective Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Digital University.
Appearing before a Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, Mr. Venkataramani informed the court that the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the two universities, has also decided on names of top academicians from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to be considered for the V-C posts.
Mr. Venkataramani said the University Grants Commission (UGC), who has to nominate one of the five members of the search committee, has selected names.
The court scheduled the case for August 18. Justice Pardiwala said the court would, at its own instance, finalise four of the five members of the search panel from the names given by both the State, represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and advocate C.K. Sasi, and the Governor. The UGC would be left to fill up the fifth member on its own.
On Wednesday (August 13, 2025), the Bench had asked the State and the Governor to provide, by August 14, four names each for inclusion in the five-member search panel.
'Our endeavour is to appoint regular V-Cs. Today, the entire problem is with the constitution of a search committee. We will help you out. We will constitute a search committee, which would give an opinion as to who are fit enough to be VCs. Then, you (Chancellor-State Governor would sit in consultation with the State government and select one for the digital university and another for the technology university,' Justice Pardiwala addressed Mr. Venkataramani.
Mr. Venkataramani had earlier referred to how the Kerala High Court had quashed Chancellor's appointment of temporary V-Cs to the universities for not consulting with the State government.
'This is not a power struggle. This is a federal issue. We have an underlying common culture in this country. But every State is very different. So, therefore, education is in the Concurrent List. The Chancellor is trying to ensure there is no whiff of Kerala in his appointments. Like this, the federal nature of the process would get diluted,' Mr. Gupta had submitted.
Mr. Gupta had said the 'unilateral' appointment of interim V-Cs for six months by the Chancellor-Governor was in breach of Section 13(7) of the Technological University Act. The provision mandated that interim V-Cs should be appointed only on the recommendation of the State government'.