The Kannur University Syndicate has decided to approach the Kerala High Court against the Governor’s decision to freeze the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of Chief Minister’s private secretary K.K. Ragesh.
In an emergency syndicate meeting held on Thursday, it was decided not to yield to the Governor. A decision has been taken to approach the High Court on Friday against the stay order.
Vice Chancellor (VC) Gopinath Ravindran has received legal advice that the Governor’s stay order is not legally valid. The Governor issued the order without issuing a show-cause notice to the VC. The legal advice is that this is not legal.
No power
According to the Kannur University rules, the Governor has no power to cancel the Syndicate decision. Governor and Chancellor of the university Arif Mohammed Khan froze the rank list after Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran said that the appointment order for Priya Varghese would be issued within two days.
The Governor’s action is under Section 7(3) of the Kannur University Regulations, 1996. On Wednesday, the Governor froze the notification issued by the Kannur University on July 27, giving the first rank to Priya Varghese as Associate Professor of Malayalam.
A show-cause notice was also issued to the persons concerned, including the VC. The action was taken following a complaint by the Save University Campaign Committee that Ms. Varghese did not have eight years of teaching experience as required by the UGC.
Research score
The Chancellor also considered the Right to Information Act reply stating that Ms. Varghese, who had the lowest research score among the interviewees, was given the first rank in the interview over those with more teaching experience and research score.
