Admission to former SFI leader: HC directive to Kerala University to confirm the provisional appointment of Principal
The Kerala High Court has directed the University of Kerala to confirm the provisional approval of appointment of Muhammed Thaha as Principal of MSM College, Kayamkulam.
The university had earlier withdrawn its approval following lapses detected in connection with the admission given to former SFI leader Nikhil Thomas for M.Com course based on a fake degree certificate. The provisional approval was given on an interim directive of the High Court.
Justice N. Nagaresh observed that assuming that there is negligence on the part of the petitioner, an isolated instance of negligence as alleged against the petitioner cannot be a reason to decline approval to the appointment of the petitioner as Principal which was made after a due selection process.
The allegation against the petitioner was that when RTI applications on the degree certificate submitted by former SFI leader were received by the petitioner who was the then Public Information Officer, he had not taken care to verify the authenticity of the degree certificate. The petitioner acted negligently in not cross-verifying the documents..
The petitioner also said that the former SFI leader was admitted to the PG Course on January 28,2022 when Bhadrakumari was the Principal of the College. The petitioner being an Associate Professor in Arabic, had no role whatsoever in the admission of the student.
However, the petitioner was issued a show-cause notice on September 05, 2023 by the management. The university thereafter decided to withdraw the approval granted to the petitioner as Principal.
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