Kerala HC cancels appointment of new board of studies in Kannur University

Kochi, March 22 A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a single bench order okaying appointment of about 700 board of studies members to 72 departments of the Kannur University.

The court said that guidelines were violated as Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is also the chancellor, was kept in the dark about these appointments.

A movement 'Save University Campaign' had first approached the single bench when these appointments were done, but the court said there was nothing wrong in it.

The movement then approached the division bench headed by Chief Justice S.Manikumar which went into the details and found out that the concurrence of the chancellor was not obtained.

The petitioners had pointed out that the rules were tweaked by the Syndicate of the University and the role of the chancellor in the appointment to the board of studies was not required.

The Campaign movement had alleged that it was the fellow travellers of the CPI-M who were mostly appointed in the board of studies.

Incidentally, the Kannur University for a while has been caught under a few litigations, which included the re-appointment of the vice-chancellor just before he was to superannuate, but the court cleared it.

In another case, a lot of noise was created when Chief Minister's private secretary's wife was given an appointment as a faculty, despite having far less experience to another candidate and even though the appointment was cleared, the order is yet to come out.

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