Kerala government to move court over governor's recent appointment of vice-chancellors to universities

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the Pinarayi Vijayan government continue to lock horns with the former appointing vice-chancellors to two universities ignoring the state government's recommendations.

Defending his decision, Khan said on Thursday that he was only exercising the powers vested with him as the chancellor of the universities, whereas Higher Education Minister R Bindhu said that the government would move court against the governor's unilateral decision.

Governor appointed Ciza Thomas as Kerala digital university vice-chancellor and K Sivaprasad as Kerala Technological University vice-chancellor. Both the posts recently became vacant.

Though the Kerala government amended the laws to restructure the search committees for V-Cs selection by ensuring that more nominees of the state government are included in the committees, the governor referred the bill passed by the assembly to the President. It is still pending.

Khan has been alleging that the CPI(M)-led government was trying to induct persons of their choice to key posts in universities without giving importance to merit and thereby lowering the quality of the universities.