Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has decided that Professor Bijoy Nandan will take charge as Vice-Chancellor of Kannur University in Kerala, a release from the Raj Bhavan said on Friday.
This comes a day after the Supreme Court quashed a notification relating to the reappointment of Kannur University Vice-Chancellor and found that the appointment was an unwarranted intervention of the state government.
“Professor Bijoy Nandan will take charge as Vice Chancellor of Kannur University,” a Raj Bhavan official said.
Nandan is Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, at Cochin University of Science and Technology.
Governor Khan hit out at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment was vitiated by the interference of the state.
The Kerala Governor alleged that all the pressure came from the Chief Minister’s office and the education minister cannot be blamed in the matter.
“It is wrong to blame the education minister. The education minister was only used by the CM. It was not the education minister who came to my office, but an individual who claimed to be the legal advisor to the Chief Minister who did all the talking. Then they brought the education minister’s letter,” the governor said while responding to the top court’s verdict on Thursday.
On Thursday, a bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra set aside the Kerala High Court order and quashed the notification of re-appointing the person as VC of Kannur University.
The Court was hearing a petition filed by Premachandran Keezhoth and others.
The petitioner has filed a Special Leave Petition questioning whether there is any distinction in law in the matter of ‘appointment’ and/or re-appointment to a public office in respect of procedure or eligibility for selection, where a procedure or eligibility for appointment’ has been set out in the university law and the applicable under UGC Regulations. (ANI)
