Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, as Chancellor of Universities in the state, on Tuesday issued a show cause notice to the Vice-Chancellor of Sreenarayanaguru Open University asking what legal right he has to hold the office as his appointment was allegedly in violation of UGC norms. The show cause notice comes in the wake of Mr Khan, last week, asking the Vice-Chancellors of nine other Kerala universities to quit their respective offices.
After the Vice-Chancellors did not send their resignations by 11.30 AM on Monday as sought by Khan, he had issued show cause notices to them seeking their response by November 3 on what legal right they have to continue in their respective offices following the Supreme Court order of October 21. A similar notice has now been sent to Dr P M Mubarak Pasha, the Vice-Chancellor of Sreenarayanaguru Open University, seeking his response by November 4.
In the notice, it is said that in view of the Supreme court judgement "it is prima facie found that your appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of Sreenarayanaguru Open University is contrary to the UGC Regulations and as such is bad in law / illegal and void ab initio". The Supreme court on October 21 had quashed the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University saying that as per the University Grants Commission (UGC), the search committee constituted by the state should have recommended a panel of not less than three suitable people among eminent people in the field of engineering science to the chancellor but, instead it sent only one name.
Based on that order, Mr Khan had called for resignations of Vice-Chancellors whose names were the only ones recommended for appointment and also those who were selected by a committee of which the Chief Secretary of the state was a member, terming both as a violation of UGC regulations. In the case of Mr Pasha, the show cause notice states that he was appointed on the basis of the recommendation by the state government and not by a search/selection committee as prescribed in the UGC regulations.
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