Panel without varsity nominee illegal, restart process: Senate to Governor

Earlier this month, Khan had formed a search committee having nominees of the UGC and the Chancellor, and none of the Senate. The University Act mandates that the committee should have a nominee of the Senate. Since there was no recommendation for the nominee from the CPI(M)-dominated Senate, Khan notified only a two-member committee.

During the Senate meeting held on Saturday, one of the members brought to the notice of V-C Dr Mahadevan Pillai about “the pending recommendation of the Senate member to the search committee”. Subsequently, the issue was presented before the Senate as an agenda.

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Senate member advocate K H Babujan said the formation of the two-member search committee is against the University Act. “It is illegal and has no provision for inclusion of the Senate nominee in the search committee at a later stage as claimed by the Governor. The Senate nominee will be the only democratically-elected member in the search panel. Hence, a committee without a senate nominee is undemocratic,” he said. He added that the incumbent V-C has a term up to Oct 25 this year and hence the Governor formed the panel in “undue haste”.