Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan continued his attack on Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan by accusing him of trying to run a parallel government in the state, even as the Raj Bhavan is learnt to be gearing up for further moves as none of the 11 vice-chancellors were yet to respond to the show-cause notices issued to them.
Even as seven vice-chancellors moved the Kerala High Court on Thursday questioning the Governor’s authority to initiate steps to remove them, the court did not grant any stay on the show-cause notices.
It was in the backdrop of a recent Supreme Court order setting aside selection of A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University vice-chancellor M S Rajasree citing violation of UGC selection process that the governor initially issued a 24-hour notice to other chancellors on October 23 to step down citing similar violations in their selection too. Later they were issued show-cause notices giving time till November 3 and 4.
Sources said that so far no vice-chancellors gave any reply to the governor’s show-cause notices. They were also given an option for personal appearance till November 7.
The Raj Bhavan already collected a list of senior professors of the universities who could be given charge in case the vice-chancellors are removed. There were also unconfirmed reports that Raj Bhavan sought legal options of recovering the salaries drawn by the vice-chancellors so far.
The chief minister’s fresh open attack against Khan was during the launch of a mass campaign by the ruling Left Democratic Front against the governor here on Wednesday.
Vijayan said that the governor was under the impression that he was the supreme authority of the state and hence taking steps like withdrawing his pleasure towards a minister and seeking action against him.
It is for the democratically-elected government as well as the people to take such decisions. As per the university laws the governor had no rights to remove vice-chancellors, said the chief minister.
Meanwhile, there were also reports that the state government was initiating steps to bring in amendments in university laws to remove the governor from the post of Chancellor of universities.
However, an amendment already passed by the state Assembly to amend the selection process of vice-chancellors was still awaiting governor’s nod for nearly two months.