In a major setback to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan in the power struggle with the state government, the Kerala High Court quashed the appointment of four members he nominated to the Kerala University Senate.
The court upheld the nominations of the state government to the senate of the same university and directed the Governor to select fresh nominees within a period of six weeks.
Khan, in his capacity as Chancellor, is supposed to nominate students who have demonstrated excellence in various fields. However, those nominated were alleged members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
These nominations led to a massive confrontation between the Governor and the SFI, the student wing of the ruling CPI(M), often resulting in public face-offs on the streets.
Two separate pleas were filed by four students of the university challenging the nominations in the categories of Fine Arts, Sports, Humanities, and Science. The petitioners alleged that the normal procedures were not followed by the Chancellor and that individuals with no merit were nominated to the senate.
While quashing the nominations made by Khan, the court observed that “there is no unbridled power vested with the Chancellor while making the nominations in terms of the statutory provisions.
“An unguided, unfettered and unbridled power is foreign to the exercise of any power, constitutional or statutory. It is trite that even in the exercise of discretionary power, the requirements of reasonableness, rationality, impartiality, fairness and equity are inherent to such exercise and can never be according to any private opinion. Under such circumstances, the nominations made (by the Chancellor) are to be interfered with and accordingly, they are quashed,” the court said.
The Governor did not choose representatives from the list provided by the university.
The High Court’s decision was welcomed by the ruling Left government in Kerala and the CPI(M).
State Law Minister P Rajeev stated that the Chancellor of Universities cannot be seen as a “sovereign republic”.
CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan described the court decision as a setback for the Governor’s “political games”.
SFI state president K Anushree and secretary PM Arsho called it a victory for the people of Kerala in their “fight against Sangh Parivar”, insisting that Governor Khan should immediately resign from the position of Chancellor.
Source Agencies
