In setback to Kerala Governor, nominations he made to university are quashed by High Court

Subsequently, students who had figured in the list forwarded from the university to Raj Bhavan, but were not among those nominated by the Governor, approached the court alleging that he had dropped eligible names.

Referring to the names nominated by the Governor, the court said that “no single factor of the nominated students is shown superior” to those of the petitioners.

The court directed the Governor to make fresh nominations within six weeks.

The Bench of Justice Mohammed Nias C P said, “It is trite that there is no unbridled power vested with the Chancellor (the Governor) while making the nominations. If the nomination made is contrary to the requirement of the statute or if relevant factors were not considered or if irrelevant factors were considered in making the decisions, the nominations will have to be interfered with by the Constitutional Courts.”

The judge said any arbitrary use of power violates not only the rule of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, but also the rule of ‘discrimination’ inbuilt in Article 16. “An unguided, unfettered and unbridled power is foreign to the exercise of any power, constitutional or statutory. 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,” the court said.

Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu said the state government is acting to protect the “democratic rights of the students and safeguard secular values in the education sector”. “I hope this verdict will put an end to unnecessary controversies,” she said.